Dream Big
by sour gummies
Summary: Takato and his friends weren't the only children in the world to become tamers. In fact, wild Digimon realized out of the network across the globe, seeking human partners. These are the stories of the people they met. Canon-compliant, OC-centric fic; takes place in the Digimon Tamers universe. Does NOT cross over with the main cast. Current chapter: Noémi & Luc, France
1. Noémi, Luc: Hard Realities

a/n: I am currently in the process of reworking my other Digimon story, which badly needs a rehaul even from Chapter 1, but in the meantime, this idea wouldn't leave me alone so I've started writing it. It's a story set in the _Tamers_ universe, but at this point in time I **DO NOT** have any plans for the main cast (Takato, Jenrya, Ruki, etc.) to make appearances, outside perhaps newscasts or televised cameos.

This story is purely OC-based, because I've always thought it was at least a possibility that other children in the _Tamers_ world might have received Digimon partners aside from the main group in Shinjuku. I haven't seen any canon evidence for Wild Ones realizing outside of Japan, but I also don't think there was anything directly contradicting it, especially given that the 'Network' could be presumed to exist all over the world.

Just for clarification: this story does alternate among many different (original) characters in different parts of the world, at varying points in time. The D-Reaper mess _will_ probably come up at some point, but I haven't decided when. Constructive feedback is always appreciated.

Enjoy.

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**DREAM BIG: A DIGIMON TAMERS STORY  
**

_"Games and Hard Realities"_

The French commune of Vertou might have been part of a larger metropolitan area, not far south of Nantes, but the particular neighborhood where Noémi and her family lived was always fairly quiet in the afternoon. It gave her valuable time to think as she walked from her school, passing a number of small shops and buildings in the street without really seeing them at all.

Wind from the distant river _Sèvre nantaise_ blew over the town in cool gusts, sweeping at times through Noémi's dark brown hair. The short strands whipped loosely about her face, obscuring her view of the street, before she mechanically brushed them back again with one hand. It was nothing she wasn't used to.

"—all this _fog_ lately, you wouldn't even believe—"

"—trust me, I know. And it's not just here, my brother in Canada told me yesterday that they had a—"

Passing voices drifted in and out of Noémi's ears as she made her way toward the local primary school. For the most part, she ignored them. She was caught up in her own thoughts, most of which were about the chores and homework she'd have to finish tonight if she wanted to get to bed at a decent hour. Papa had recently started a new job, one that kept him busy in the evenings, and he'd made it clear to Noémi that the upkeep of the apartment would fall to her out of necessity while he was away.

Noémi had protested at first, not liking the weight of having so many responsibilities resting on her twelve-year-old shoulders. Now, though, she was more or less used to their new routine. In fact, the only thing that could still get tiring sometimes was watching over Luc.

Speaking of whom...

Noémi finally arrived at the front gates of the primary school, slowing to a halt as she scanned the outside of the building for signs of her younger brother. Other children were clustered in groups of three or four, and chatted idly while they waited for their parents, but as per usual Luc's dark head of messy brown hair was nowhere to be found. With a sigh, Noémi approached the nearest professor.

"Madame Guyot?" she asked timidly, hoping to get the woman's attention. "Have you seen...?"

The instructor turned, her mouth half-opening to issue a reprimand, but she stopped when she recognized Noémi. "Ah, hello there!" the woman said with a smile, relaxing her posture. "It's always a pleasure to see any former student of mine—especially one who was always so bright at math. Tell me, Noémi, have you been keeping up your grades lately at your new school?"

"I...I have, yes," Noémi lied, feeling a hard sting of guilt. "Everything's going wonderfully."

Truthfully, her grades had recently suffered quite a bit, as a result of the added pressure of looking after the apartment and her brother in the evenings when she might normally have been studying. Noémi knew it was a problem, one that would only grow worse as the year went on, but she hadn't had the heart to talk about it with her father yet. She'd always been a good student before; more than anything she hated the thought of disappointing Papa when he'd obviously trusted her with so much in such a short amount of time. What would he think if he knew she couldn't even handle her schoolwork?

The professor interrupted Noémi's thoughts with a hand rested gently on her shoulder. "That's very good to hear," Mme Guyot said kindly. "As always, let me know if you need any help, all right?"

"O-of course," Noémi told her with a shaky smile.

"Good," Mme Guyot said, nodding briskly. "Now—if it's young Lucas you're looking for, I believe I saw him not long ago in the schoolyard with one of his friends. Your brother is a bright one like you, Noémi, but I do wish he'd pay more attention in class...and less on those strange little foreign card games of his..."

"I'll be sure to talk to him about it when we get home," Noémi assured her, making a mental note to do exactly that. After all, Madame Guyot wasn't the first of Luc's teachers to complain that his constant preoccupation with "Digimon" was an obstruction to his studies, and it seemed to Noémi that at least _one_ of the Simonet siblings ought to be doing well in school.

She walked around the side of the building to the yard, where to her surprise, Luc was seated cross-legged in the grass beside a mousy-looking girl his own age. The two of them were poring over a a sprawling arrangement of Digimon cards, laid out before them in messy rows on the ground.

"...But you can only evolve your Digimon if all the requirements are met for that turn," Luc was telling the girl matter-of-factly, his ordinarily dreamy voice uncharacteristically focused and intense. "If you want to evolve to Adult, for example, you have to already have a Child Digimon in play."

"And then, after Adult—it evolves to Perfect level, right?" the girl asked him pensively.

"That's right!" Luc said, flashing her an encouraging smile. "Child level is first, then Adult, then Perfect, and finally Ultimate, if you make it that far. But, you can only evolve a Digimon once per turn! Those are the rules."

The girl nodded, seemingly more to herself than anything else. She reached out for one of the cards on the ground and gingerly held it up between two fingers to examine it.

"I've never gotten to play this game before," she confessed, pale blue eyes scanning over the text with unmistakable longing. "I've always seen these cards in the stores, and I thought it looked like fun, but _ma mère_ said that monster games are for boys. She wanted me to keep playing with my dolls and animals instead..."

A strange expression crossed Luc's face, and he looked like he was about to say something, but at that moment he caught sight of Noémi approaching.

"Oh—hi, sis!" he called, scrambling to his feet and dusting off his school pants as she walked over to them. "You're here early today! I would have been waiting out front if I knew!"

"I'm not early, Luc," Noémi said, with an all-too-familiar sigh of exasperation. "_You_ lost track of time again. One of your teachers had to tell me where you were, or I'd still be waiting."

"Really?" he asked, blinking dumbly. Belatedly, he realized his cards were still scattered all over the ground, and he dropped down frantically to gather them up as fast as he could. "S-Sorry, Noémi! It won't happen again!"

"You said that last time," she reminded him, though she didn't press the issue. She turned to the girl who Luc had been playing with, a tiny little thing with mouse-brown hair that went almost halfway down her back in a long braid. "Hello, I'm Noémi, Luc's sister. Were he and you playing Digimon together?"

The girl nodded, her pale cheeks now tinged pink. "I'm Océane. Don't tell my Mom about this? Please," she added quickly, almost as an afterthought.

Noémi hesitated. Still, it wasn't as if she _knew_ this girl's mother, and besides, considering the sorry state of her grades, she had no room to talk when it came to keeping secrets from her family. "Okay, fine," she told the girl reluctantly. "I won't tell. But I do need to take Luc home now. You two can play again tomorrow."

The eight-year-olds nodded obediently in unison, exchanging an shared look of excitement between them. Noémi sighed again and turned to her brother.

"Ready to go?"

—

The walk home from Luc's school was always a long one, and today it was made even longer by the fact that Luc had insisted they take the scenic route down by the river. Thinking of the long list of chores awaiting her when she got home, as well as the recent spike in foggy spells near their area, Noémi had nearly refused, but one look into Luc's eager amber-colored eyes had weakened her conviction. She could hardly ever say no to her brother.

_I'll make the time up somehow_, she resolved, nervously fidgeting with the straps of her backpack as she walked. She tried not to think too hard about the group project she was supposed to finish for class that Friday, the others having trusted her with tying all the loose ends of their combined efforts together. The work was piling up, and she was getting seriously worried, but it couldn't _really_ be all that bad if she got her act together after today. She still had five days. _Maybe tomorrow there won't be so much extra work_...

"Hey, Noémi? Do you think Océane could maybe come over to our apartment sometime this week after class?"

Luc's words cut her anxieties short, shaking Noémi from her thoughts. Out here, away from the bustle of the streets, any words they said seemed especially loud when compared to the stillness of the water. She turned to her brother, all thoughts of chores forgotten. "You want that girl to come over?" she asked, a little surprised. "I've never even seen you with her before. I didn't know the two of you were friends until today."

"Um—well, I mean, we weren't," Luc said, glancing away in sudden embarrassment. "We only just started talking. Don't be mad, but, I was practicing Digimon again in class this afternoon, and the teacher sort of caught me with my cards in my desk...I had to write a bunch of lines, but when class was over, Océane came and asked me if I would teach her how to play when school was out. She thinks it's really cool, Noémi!"

"You got in trouble again?" Noémi demanded, stopping to fully face him. "Luc, you have to stop messing around with those stupid cards while you're in school!"

"It's not stupid!" he said, looking hurt. "Digimon is fun! And I didn't mean to get caught, it's just, class is so _boring_, and Digimon is all I ever think about..."

Noémi bit her lip and looked away from him, slowly starting to walk again. She folded her arms tightly across her chest and looked out over the river.

"Maybe you shouldn't take your cards to school anymore, Luc," she mused quietly, not meeting his eyes. "Papa's got enough to worry about right now, without you getting into trouble over some silly Japanese game."

"No, no, Noémi!" he pleaded. "I'll be good, I promise! I'll never do it again! Digimon is my most favorite thing _ever_, please don't take it away!"

Noémi closed her eyes and kept walking. "That part sort of worries me, too, Luc," she told him softly, worry churning in her gut like a sickness. "None of the other kids in your class like Digimon as much as you do. Why can't you get into a hobby that will help you make some friends for a change? It _can't _be fun to sit and play by yourself."

For a long moment, Luc said nothing, and Noémi finally had to open her eyes again. Her brother looked extremely upset.

"I have a friend now, though!" he said, begging with both his eyes and his voice. "Océane likes the card game, too! Really! I bet we can be good friends if I'm really nice to her!"

"Okay, okay, fine," Noémi said, tearing her gaze away from the sadness written on his face. "For now. I just don't like how obsessive you are over this weird game."

"But what if it wasn't a game?"

Noémi abruptly stopped walking. Behind her, Luc had stopped, too, staring out distantly over the water toward the setting sun.

"What do you mean by that?" Noémi asked him sharply.

"I...nothing, really," Luc said vaguely, sounding a little detached. His thoughts seemed to be far off, even worlds apart. "It's just...sometimes, I have these dreams, and it feels so _real_. Like, they're really there. I see kids who can talk to them, have the power to _control_ them, and it just makes me want to—"

"_Luc_," Noémi interrupted suddenly, her skin breaking out in goosebumps all over. She knew her brother could be a bit of an oddball at times, but for some reason, his words now were giving her chills, and she didn't like it at all. "Luc, Digimon isn't real. It isn't. Digimon is just a game—and dreams are only dreams."

He looked back at her, amber eyes wide. "But what if they aren't, Noémi?" he asked softly.

Narrowing her eyes, Noémi opened her mouth to answer him.

But before she could, a sudden pillar of light burst out from the edge of the riverbank—and all at once, the world around them erupted into fog that was dense like steel.


	2. Daniel: Shelter in the Rain

a/n: To clarify things preemptively, the digimon that appears in this chapter is called EbiBurgemon. It's a canon creation, but to the best of my knowledge it's never played a notable role in any of the anime series—so, if you can't (re)call what it looks like right off the bat, I'd suggest a quick image search on Google or elsewhere to get a mental picture in place.

I do give a detailed description of EbiBurgemon in the chapter itself, but I wouldn't hold my breath for it to conjure up as good a picture in readers' minds as the one that's already in the Digimon Almanac. Digidex, everyone! It's very useful!

(Reviews are always appreciated.)

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**DREAM BIG: A DIGIMON TAMERS STORY  
**

_"Fear and Shelter in the Rain"_

Daniel had no idea why he even bothered to stop.

The summer in Bradford had been long and hot—among other things—but with the beginning of September came finally coolness and the rain. There had been some unusual breakouts of fog over the past few weeks in the area where he lived and went to school, but this was the first time the humidity had coalesced into a shower.

Unwittingly splashing his way through a dozen puddles before he was halfway home from primary school, Daniel cursed himself for leaving his school sweatshirt hanging up in the cupboard that morning. Already his uniform was damp enough to cling to his skin as he ran, trapping any water that ran between his back and the rucksack where he kept his school supplies. His shoes and socks were completely soaked through; he could feel an uncomfortable squelch of water each time his feet hit against the pavement. His short, pale brown hair was plastered to his forehead in soaking locks that dripped water all the way down his face. Daniel wondered if this was how drowning animals must feel.

Making his way over a busy crossroads, alongside half a dozen men and women holding umbrellas, Daniel paused when he found himself at the entrance to a long open alleyway which he knew cut cleanly through to the next street over. If he went through now, the shortcut would save him the bother of walking all the way down to the end of the block and around again.

He tentatively stepped closer, considering his options, but had to stave off an instinctive swell of fear at the thought of what might be lurking in the shadows ahead. The towering brick-and-mortar walls on either side left the alleyway impressively dark. Ducking his head inside, Daniel saw what looked to be roughly half an ocean of pooled water, forming countless rippling, murky puddles around sopping rubbish-bins. He cringed, deciding immediately that any time he saved taking the shortcut wouldn't be worth the mud splattering he'd be sure to collect from his efforts. He turned to leave the alley, resigned to continuing on the long way home.

Suddenly, he he heard a small, keening sound coming from the the alley behind him. Startled, Daniel turned back around, his eyes darting over the shadows beneath the walls to look for the source. The sound had been keening and faint, barely loud enough to reach his ears over the pouring rain, but as soon as Daniel heard it he knew for certain it must have come from a living creature. Had someone left their pet cat out in the rain by mistake? Who could possibly...

_He was running. The night air was damp and cold, burning like ice in his lungs whenever he gasped for breath. It was so dark that he could scarcely see the freezing pavement in front of him, but he was too afraid of what might happen to even think about stopping. Already, he could feel his bare feet beginning to blister, but he paid no heed to the pain. He had to find them._

Daniel violently shook his head clear to clear away the memory, annoyed at himself. He needed to see if there was something here! He watched the alley motionlessly for several long moments, waiting uneasily, but no matter how hard he looked he could see no trace of movement anywhere in the darkness.

A nagging voice at the back of his mind reminded him that if he'd decided to forego the shortcut that would get him home quickest, he didn't exactly have time to waste digging around in rubbish-bins for lost animals. Hugo would be waiting at the museum for Daniel to call, so that he could let his cousin know he'd made it home safely. If he kept Hugo waiting for too long, there was a chance the older boy might get in trouble with his boss.

Besides, Daniel reasoned, cats were fairly smart, weren't they? Surely this one could take care of itself fine, at least until the rain had passed.

Just then, the animal noise came again, mewling and helpless. Before Daniel was quite conscious of what he was doing he'd already sprinted into the alley, glancing around wildly in search of the source.

Heart pounding in his throat, he nearly missed the small, shivering movement of an unknown creature in the corner of one eye—belatedly, he whipped around, swivelling his head uncertainly until he caught sight of a splash of mismatched colour shrinking back into the shadow of a rubbish-bin.

Slowly, Daniel approached, putting up both hands in front of him in the hopes that _whatever_ this thing was would be able to tell he didn't mean it any harm.

"H-Hey, there," he said, in what he hoped might pass for a soothing voice. He prayed silently that he wasn't dealing with some animal species that would launch itself into an attack as soon as it found itself backed into a corner.

Stooping, Daniel knelt down about half a metere away from the bin, holding one hand out in a pacifying gesture. "Shh, don't worry, it's okay," he said. "Here, kitty, kitty. You can come out now—I, um, I promise I'm not going to hurt you."

Then Daniel waited, holding his breath in anticipation. He forced himself to stay kneeling motionlessly there for nearly half a minute, despite the fact that he could already feel the unpleasant sensation of muddy water from the alley soaking into the bottoms of his trousers.

Either the animal would come out, or it wouldn't, but Daniel wasn't about to force the creature to show itself if it was too afraid.

A long time passed before Daniel finally saw a small, pale-coloured shape creep out hesitantly from behind the bin. From where he was kneeling, Daniel couldn't make out what the creature was, but it was obviously chilled and frightened—the poor thing was shivering all over, staring out at Daniel with round eyes that reflected nothing in the darkness of the alley.

Gladdened at his own success, Daniel couldn't stop a smile from breaking out over his face. He let out a laugh quietly in the darkness. "There, see?" he coaxed, easing himself forward on his hands, moving a few centimetres at a time until he was within arm's reach of the unknown animal. "Don't you worry, mate, it's all right. I'm only here to get you out of the rain..."

He didn't have any delusions of keeping the animal for himself, whatever it was. The small flat where Daniel lived with his cousin Hugo only allowed animals on the condition of a pricey deposit fee, which they simply didn't have. Hugo worked manning the cinema all day at the local media museum, and while it was a steady job, it wasn't a high-paying one, however much he tried to sugarcoat events for Daniel's sake.

Still, if nothing else Daniel could get this poor animal some shelter from the rain for a little while, if it wanted any, and give it something of substance to eat. It was the least he could do to help.

Just then, a brilliant bolt of lightning lanced through the sky overhead, heralding the worsening storm. The resulting flash lit the surrounding area so brightly that the alley Daniel stood in, as well as with all the adjacent streets, were bathed in a pure, blinding white for nearly a second of time—long enough to illuminate everything hidden in the shadows.

That split-second was enough to wipe out all the kindness and well meaning in an instant from Daniel's heart, to be replaced by a sudden, drowning sensation of terror. It wasn't the suddenness of the lightning that had frightened him so badly, nor was it the roaring clap of thunder that had followed in its wake: the burst of light that blazed in the alley in that instant had given Daniel a complete, unimpaired look at the creature hidden behind the rubbish-bin, and what he beheld there was no cat—nor was it any other animal that had ever been born naturally on the Earth.

Feeling a bolt of wild panic, Daniel yelped and scrambled backward from the creature as quickly as his stumbling limbs could move. In his haste, he ended up forfeiting his balance and falling clumsily onto his bum, splashing mud and dirty water all over his school clothes. He was up an instant later, madly shoving himself off the ground only to blindly careen his way to the opposing brick wall. He recoiled from the force of it with a cry of pain, hitting the ground hard, then in panic he curled up instinctively with his hands thrown for protection over his head.

The ten-year-old shuddered with fear and helplessness, heart still racing at the impossibility of what he he'd laid eyes on moments before. That _thing_ was not a cat. It wasn't a rat, and it certainly wasn't a pigeon, however many soaking-wet feathers covered its alien form. No animal Daniel had ever encountered had a body or shape like that. Maybe it was foolish to fear something so small, but he couldn't _not_ be afraid, confronted so abruptly with a form starkly unknown and unfamiliar to him.

The glimpse he'd gotten of the creature spooked Daniel so badly, in fact, that it took him a full, trembling minute before another sound was able to cut through the fog shrouding his mind. When he heard it, the sound set his heart racing again, for a completely different reason: the creature was letting out more of the same pitiful, mewling noises that had drawn Daniel into the alley in the first place.

Tentatively, Daniel unburied his face from his hands, allowing his body to uncurl. His eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness, and he could barely make out a pale, pink shape cowering in the shadow of the same rubbish-bin as before. Covered in the darkness of the clouds and the alley's shadows, the bizarre creature no longer looked much like an unknown monster—it was only trembling and cold, nearly as frightened, if not more, than Daniel himself felt in that moment.

If he _determinedly_ thought about it that way, the animal didn't seem so intimidating anymore, despite the racing of his heart.

"Um, I," he croaked out, moving to sit up again with his back to the wall. His voice shook when he spoke, and so did his traitorous body, but Daniel forced himself bravely to continue. "I-I'm sorry, if I, uh, if I scared you there, mate. You just, um—_startled_ me, is all."

Daniel didn't know what he expected to accomplish with that statement, save perhaps calm his own frazzled nerves. However, to his great surprise, the creature immediately stopped its shaking.

Moving slowly, it poked its whole head out from behind the rubbish-bin, looking over at him with obvious apprehension. The lack of light made it difficult to be certain, but Daniel could nonetheless confirm what he'd seen earlier during the lightning-flash: the creature's head was covered by a round, domelike shape that perfectly mimicked the sort of cap a human would wear, smooth on its surface and sprinkled with small white dots that were bizarrely reminiscent of sesame seeds. The cap-thing was a different colour than the rest of the animal's body, which was small and bipedal in shape. The creature was covered in rumpled feathers, all the way down to its feet. If Daniel had to guess, he'd say that it looked to be probably a pale pink or orange colour, but the darkness made it impossible to tell for sure.

When Daniel made no move to speak again or get closer, the creature let out a little warbling noise and timidly stepped out fully from behind the bin. _It walks on its feet like a person,_ Daniel found himself marvelling, the thought echoing in his mind as though from far away. Once the creature was fully extracted from the shadows, Daniel could see that, instead of bird wings, the creature sported a petite pair of _arms_ that ended in five-fingered, impossibly tiny hands. The creature stared at him with perfectly dark, round eyes, and Daniel noticed it had a feathered tail, which fanned out behind it looking sorely bedraggled from the rain.

"Wow," he said, more awed by now than frightened.

Slowly, very slowly, he moved, pulling himself first to a crouching position and then crawling forward one centimetre at a time. "What _are_ you?" he whispered, awestruck, torn between his lingering fear and a new sense wonder as he reached out a trembling hand to test whether the creature would shy away from him.

The small thing shook badly, but didn't try to move away. "Biiiii?" it warbled pitifully, taking several tottering, uncertain steps forward. "Biii? Bii, eh biiiii?"

The high-pitched noises were nearly as strange as the creature's appearance, scarcely more animal than human, but Daniel didn't stop to dwell on them. Closer inspection proved the poor thing to be even more pitiful than it had seemed at first glance. Large feathers were missing from its fanned tail, as well as in small clumps all over its body, and the creature's body was littered with a variety of marks and scrapes all over. Its appearance spoke plainly of an abuse that went beyond anything the rain had done. In fact, it looked like it had been fighting. Daniel felt a swell of protective anger rise within him, but, just as quickly, it disappeared again, in lieu of deep sadness and a feeling of incredulity that the small shaking form in front of him had possessed the mind to fight anything at all.

Daniel took a deep breath, steeling himself. Slowly, he closed the last few centimetres of distance between himself and the small creature, reaching out to graze the top of its head with his fingertips.

A sudden warmth flooded him—not from the point of contact, but from deep within his own chest. The sensation was dizzyingly familiar, something Daniel thought he might have experienced once or twice in his whole lifetime, moments lying half-awake in the wake of a particularly wonderful dream. He felt the last of his fear drain away into nothing, like it had never been.

"It's okay," Daniel breathed, water dripping down his face as he adjusted his body to hover protectively above the small body beneath him. He huddled over the small form and ignored the water running into his eyes, sheltering the creature from the rain.

"It's okay. You'll see," he repeated, hardly even aware of what he was promising. He somehow _knew_ that the creature would be able to understand his words, would hear the honest truth of their sincerity. "You don't have to be afraid anymore, not ever again. I swear I'll protect you, as long as I live. I won't abandon you."

As soon as Daniel had finished with these words, a strange, glowing sphere of light suddenly appeared in the air before him. Noiselessly, it hovered like a beacon in the darkness, floating near his head. Daniel's eyes widened, but he didn't flinch away, not even when the orb sank slowly down and gently deposited a strange white object into the palm of his hand.

Daniel curled his fingers firmly around the device, placing his other hand on top of the creature's head, the last of the light fading away. At this, the animal let out another keening cry, this time in relief, and it ran forward without any hesitation to bury its face in the cavity of Daniel's chest.

Daniel didn't feel any fear at all.


	3. Hallie, Noah: A World Too Small

a/n: As I've said before, this story takes place in the _Tamers _universe and is completely OC-centric. However, this chapter does contain appearances of two (very minor) canon characters from the series, though they are not the focus by any means. One of the characters should be very obvious if you're paying attention. The other is less so.

Sorry in advance for the italics.

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**DREAM BIG: A DIGIMON TAMERS STORY  
**

_"A World Too Small for Trespassers"_

"..."

"...Where are you going?"

"...I will be back, Noah. Continue on as you were."

"Don't you want to watch the movie with me anymore?"

"Do not worry. I am only leaving you for a moment."

"Oh." A pause. "...Did _it_ come back?"

"I..."

"It's okay. You can talk about it. You don't have to worry about scaring me_—_I know something's out there."

"I...I am afraid I sense a presence, yes. It may be nothing more than my imagination."

"It's in Hal's room." It was not a question.

"...Yes. If I am correct, it seems to follow her specifically."

"Oh. I think I get it now. That's why you always go in there, even when you don't want Hal to see you."

"..."

"But, you're protecting her, right? That's what angels are supposed to do."

"I have said many times that I am not an angel, Noah." A sigh. "But_—_I do promise I will guard both you and your sister with my life."

"I know you will. You're my friend."

"I...yes. Now please, watch your movie. I will be back soon. The sun will rise before long."

_—_

_Hallie was ten years old again, hardly more than a little girl. She could barely keep still from excitement, yanking baby Noah along by the hand beside her until she realized he'd never be able to keep up. Impatient, she scooped her brother right up in both arms, mindful of her mother's warning to be careful with him. Noah wasn't much older than two, still a chubby little thing with tufts of auburn hair at the top of his head, and he probably wasn't old enough yet to know where he even was. But Hallie herself was still young enough to be thrilled at the novelty of a whole day spent out at the biggest amusement park in the state._

_She and her family were there in the hot California summer blaze, traveling with a large group of old school friends and their young children. Upbeat music blared from speakers that were mounted at every corner and signpost they passed, and vendors called out from every direction, selling more varieties of specialty candy and ice cream than one person could eat in a lifetime. Underneath the swell of music, distant screams of exhilarated laughter and terror could be heard at intervals, the sounds carrying over from the roller coasters and rides stationed around the park. Enormous silhouettes of big attractions towered all around the horizon, making it seem like the park went on and on forever. Balloons and decorations were hung up on every square foot of the grounds that wasn't already occupied by a cheery tourist magnet. The atmosphere was friendly and inviting._

_For all her excitement, though, Hallie was still old enough to resist the urge to break away from Noah and her parents and run wild through the park like a little kid. She was one of the older children in their traveling group, which, and as far as her parents were concerned, meant setting a good example for the younger kids and keeping them entertained while their parents were distracted._

_That was all perfectly fine with Hallie, because the younger kids worshiped her as the oldest and were forever competing to get her attention. If she gave them a spoken command, no matter how silly, they would all immediately set to scrambling about like loyal worker bees to carry out whatever task she had ordained. Their enthusiasm was catching, and the attention gave Hallie a swelled sense of importance, like she was one of the costumed fairytale princesses walking around and greeting people for pictures._

_Catching sight of a vendor who was selling chocolate pastries shaped like park animals, Hallie decided she wanted to ask her parents for some money to buy one to share with Noah. Before she could reach her father, though, Hallie felt an insistent tug on one sleeve. She turned in the direction she was being pulled and found herself staring down into a pair of wide, pale blue eyes. They belonged to one of the girls in her entourage, a petite five-year-old in a long-sleeved baseball shirt with a matching skirt. The girl was blonde, a paler shade than Hallie's or her mother's, and she wore her hair in twin pigtails tied up in blue ribbons on either side of her head. She was staring up at Hallie expectantly, expression shy but patiently hopeful._

_There were so many unfamiliar children in the group that Hallie couldn't keep track of all their names, but she vaguely remembered hearing from someone that this girl was the daughter—or perhaps the granddaughter—of an old colleague of Hallie's mother, someone she'd attended university with at Palo Alto. Hallie tried to remember what she could about the friend and his family, but she found herself coming up blank. What was the little girl's name? Allie? Anissa?_

_Hallie figured she could ask her mother later. Right now, the girl's hopeful expression begged plainly for a response, and Hallie decided that she had better find out what she wanted._

_"What's up?" Hallie asked cheerfully, setting Noah down on the ground for a moment so she could bend over to face the girl with her hands on her knees. She looked at the girl eye-to-eye with a smile. "You wanted to ask me something?"_

_The girl smiled bashfully, a pink tinge creeping slowly up her pallid cheeks. She was rather pale, especially for a Californian. Wordlessly she tugged on Hallie's sleeve again and pointed toward a large, looming castle that stood at a considerable distance ahead of the group, forming the main attraction in the next area of the park._

_"That's the ride we're going on next, Hallie," the girl said to her, so quietly that her voice was nearly a whisper. Despite her softness, the girl's words were very clear, and she sounded like she was trying to hold back an obvious air of excitement. "I remember it, from the last time I came here with Dad and Grandpa. That one is the boat ride!"_

_Hallie obliged, taking a better look in the direction the girl was pointing. She had to put a hand up over her eyes to avoid being blinded by the sun, but it was worth it. The towering castle was white, decorated in golden shapes and accents, and made up of a vertical network of turrets and towers that had sharp rectangular edges. A ring of neat green shrubs surrounded the castle on all sides; some were clipped flat, others set off in separate blocks and trimmed in the shapes of cartoon characters. A series of white metal ramps spiraled around the side of the castle and formed a path leading to the entranceway. To get to the ramps, however, Hallie saw that it was first necessary to cross an elaborate, arched white bridge: the whole castle was circled by a real-life moat, flowing with crystalline blue water._

_From where she and the rest of the group stood, the castle completely dominated the distant skyline. Even from as far away as she was, Hallie could already tell the ride was swarming with people. She could hardly see where the entrance was supposed to be amid the throngs of visitors standing impatiently waiting for their turn in line. From the looks of it, some of them would be standing there for hours. Hallie thought maybe it would be better if they didn't go._

_"Oh, don't worry about that, Hal," Hallie's mother said reassuringly when she asked. "We bought fast-passes to get us in at this time of the afternoon. The ride attendants will let us go straight to the front of the line, once get over there."_

_Perhaps it only was the angle of the sun, which was strangely blinding and oppressive for the early afternoon, but for some reason it seemed to Hallie that her mother towered impossibly high above her when she spoke. Her face seemed to disappear all the way up into the sky when Hallie craned her neck to look up at mother was standing so tall, in fact, that Hallie couldn't see a trace of her deep blue eyes staring down at her; they were lost in the darkness of the shadows cast beneath the golden fringe of her bangs._

_Hallie was so distracted by this that she nearly forgot all about her questions regarding the castle ride. She didn't remember them again until she realized the group was already passing under the gate that served as the outer entrance to the ride, a white sign with blaring letters that spelled out the name of the ride. Her heart began to beat faster.  
_

_"Are you sure we can just go?" Hallie tried to ask__—_but the words stuck in her throat, unsaid, and the scenery began to shift around her.

_The sun and white castle plunged down into nothingness, melting away like they had never been. In their place rose up a permeating, inky blackness that was punctuated on all sides by colorful drifting islands filled with moving shapes. When Hallie looked closer, she saw that many of the moving figures were animatronic humans, with crude faces and bodies constructed out of plaster spheres and cylinders. They were painted brightly and dressed in clothes like dolls, standing together in groups to create a facsimile of the different nations of the world. _

_Around them, other shapes formed two-dimensional landscapes and inanimate objects, fences and windmills and trees. The mechanical creations were disparate from one another, but moved in unison, flickering eerily in the dim light that reflected all their painted colors. The animatrons acted out their own patterns of rigid, repetitive actions over and over again, never breaking the cycle.  
_

_Though unsettled, Hallie didn't stop or wonder about what had brought about the sudden change in her surroundings. She was unsurprised to find herself sitting in a small boat, next to the other children from her group. They were all on the ride together, having left their parents back at the entrance. Noah, not big enough yet for his own seat, was situated comfortably on Hallie's lap, peacefully tugging on the strands of Hallie's straw-blonde hair. Each of the kids was buckled securely in the boat, which ferried them along the winding river that ran beneath the castle. Despite the restraints, the children were squirming impatiently in their seats, trying to get the best possible view of their surroundings. They giggled delightedly and pointed at the different parts of animatron show, twisting around to watch the passing countries disappear behind them at the turn of the riverbend._

_Seeing the children's laughter eased Hallie's nerves, but she still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. She glanced over the side of the boat, and was met with the sight of deep rippling black water, without any end in sight. The deepness of the river didn't frighten her, but Hallie did feel another stirring of unease in her gut. She already knew that she had to suppress her anxiety for the sake of the younger children, though. Her parents were were counting on her to deliver them safely to the other side._

_"I love this song," a small voice said softly from Hallie's right. _

_Hallie turned and looked down at her. It was the same little girl with the blonde pigtails again. _

_"Isn't it pretty, Hal?" the girl asked, smiling up at her. "My mom used to sing this to me at night when I couldn't sleep. Dad says that when me and him and Grandpa go to Japan next summer, we can go on this ride at the theme park in Tokyo. It's the exact same as this one."  
_

_Hallie hadn't realized before that the mannequins were singing. Now that she was aware, though, it became suddenly impossible to ignore: the animatrons' song was a melody that was intimately known to her, but the lyrics were off somehow__, disjointed from the tune like puzzle pieces that didn't quite fit. Hallie listened anyway, or tried to, but the lyrics spun right through her ears and away again, moving out in their own separate worlds without any sort of rhyme or rhythm to guide them. _

_As before, Hallie didn't take any special note of the peculiarity. As the song continued, she even found herself with an urge to sing along. One of the lyrical strains was exactly the same as she remembered, and, __hesitantly,_ she opened her mouth and began to sing:

_**It's a small world after all,  
It's a small world after all...  
It's a small world after all,  
It's a small, small world.  
**_

_That was the end. Hallie closed her eyes as the last words of the song left her lips, letting the sound drift away into nothing. In her lap, baby Noah leaned back against Hallie's chest and rested his head under her chin with a small, peaceful noise of contentment._

_The next moment, Hallie became suddenly aware that something was wrong. _

_The tune had ended, the moving animatrons going dead one by one, but instead of silence Hallie now heard a deep, ringing laughter rise up to replace it. The sound was plainly cruel and sinister, almost unhinged, and it echoed around her in all directions. The laughter had only one voice, but somehow it also seemed to simultaneously come from ten different mouths at once, none of them sounding human or machine._

_"What is that?" Hallie asked, frightened. "Who's__—_what_ is out there? __What_ happened to the ride?"

_The laughter only grew louder. Then it faded and, a cold voice growled out:  
_

_**DAISY  
**_

_Without warning, the world around Hallie abruptly shifted, and this time it wasn't calm or remotely benign. The garish colors of the boat ride faded away, leaving only gray hues to color her surroundings as far as she could see. As Hallie watched in fear, the moving animatron figures began to sag and distort beyond recognition, reforming themselves into black, shapeless masses with sinuous tendrils curling out from the places where their limbs had once been. The billowing specters made no sound at all, only reaching blindly for one another to spread the encompassing reach of the blackness. The darkness was like a virus, infecting everything it touched that she could see._

_Hallie trembled, terror rising. "Help," she croaked weakly, feeling like her mind was sinking and drowning, trapped in a fear as thick and sticking as mud.  
_

_Panic slowed her thought process to a crawl. It took her precious seconds to fully absorb everything that was going on in her surroundings, but Hallie __eventually_ realized that the boat carrying her was no longer following along the path set by the ride. The sides of the vessel rocked suddenly, the boat hit a series of ___rising_ waves in the water. Cold black water splashed over Hallie's legs, beginning to fill up the bottom of the boat. 

_"No!" she gasped, clinging hard to the inside of the boat with one arm. The leggings of her jeans were completely soaked through. "No! Please, somebody help!"  
_

_Meanwhile, a cold, thick fog crept up, hovering stagnantly over the water. Before Hallie knew what was happening, the boat and its surroundings were completely shrouded in mist. She felt a damp chill from the condensation seeping into her clothes and skin, forming goosebumps on her skin in the places where the water hadn't already left her soaked. She shivered in fear.  
_

_**DAISY  
DAISY**_

_Suddenly, she became aware of an emptiness in her lap: Noah had disappeared. Hallie looked down to where he'd been sitting a moment ago and was aghast to find that he was gone. She remembered then that he was too old to be sitting in her lap anyway, he hadn't done that in years; but it still disturbed her that he wasn't there.  
_

_Ignoring the rocking of the boat, Hallie stood up, her feet splashing through the water pooling in the bottom. She made her way to the other end of the boat, scouring every inch for her brother. He was nowhere to be found. Around her, the deep voice growled again, its words echoing from everywhere at once:  
_

___**I'M COMING TO YOU DAISY **_

_The sound was too terrible to listen to. Hallie sobbed and covered her ears with both hands, shaking her head __wildly_. She was nearing hysterics. She had no idea if she was awake or dreaming, or neither. She wanted her parents. She wanted her brother. What if he'd gotten hurt?  


_"Noah!" she screamed, stumbling hard as the boat hit another churning round of waves. "Noah, where are you!"_

**_YOU MADE IT FOR ME DAISY_**

_Her brother wasn't the only one missing, either. Hallie's search of the remainder of the boat only confirmed her worst fears: all of the other children who had been sitting next to her on the castle ride had vanished into thin air, like Noah. They were all gone._

_No____—_all but one. When Hallie looked around the boat once more time, she caught sight of the little blonde girl with the pigtails from before. She was clinging hard to the side of the boat opposite Hallie, grimacing at the cold black water splashing against her face.  


_Hallie could have sobbed for relief. "Where did you go?" she begged, stumbling over to where the girl sat and seizing her by the shoulders. "Are you all right? What happened to the others?"  
_

_The girl furrowed her brow. "Others?" she asked. _

_"Yes! The others!" Hallie told her frantically. "Noah and Sammy and the other kids! They were all on the ride! Don't you remember?"_

_The girl paused, looking a little put out. "______If there were others, you don't have to worry about them now," she said brusquely. "They weren't actually with you, Hallie. None of that was real. We're the only ones here right now._"

___Immediately__, as_ if to belie her point, the terrible unknown voice roared out again.  


**_YOU MADE IT  
_**

_Hallie trembled, unable to make herself stop. The girl ignored her for the moment, sitting up in the boat with a sudden look of curiosity. She glanced, focused, out into the darkness of their surroundings._

_The river and the castle ride were distorted nearly beyond recognition, but the girl seemed to see something familiar in them. Her expression shifted, lighting up in a sudden understanding of where she was.  
_

_Watching her closely, Hallie tried to calm her racing heart made a few surprising observations of her own. She saw that although this was clearly the same girl as before, something about her was different now__—_everything about her was different. For a starter, her clothes had changed, the baseball shirt and leggings exchanged for an elegant black Gothic Lolita-style dress and tights. She still wore her pale blonde hair in pigtails, but the ribbons tying them to the side were black instead of blue. With a start, Hallie realized that the girl was no longer five years old, either_: _she had to be at least ten now, Hallie's age. 

_But then Hallie remembered that she wasn't ten anymore. As a matter of fact, she hadn't been ten in a long time. _

_The sound of the girl's voice pulled her back to reality____—_if it could be called reality. The girl was still staring out at the black river with a distant expression.  


_"Really. From all that time ago..." she murmured, sounding almost awed. "I had forgotten it completely."  
_

_The boat tipped violently again, forcing both of them to lunge for the sides and hang on as tightly as they could. Hallie shrieked, water drenching her hair and clothes. _

_When the world had righted itself again, Hallie saw that the girl's expression had lost all traces of its dreamlike quality. She appeared focused and businesslike again, and turned to Hallie at once, brushing the excess water from her face. _

___"Hallie, listen to me," she said urgently. "I'm here to help you, but there's only so much I can do from where I am. The one who saves you has to be _you___."  
_

**___YOU MADE THE VESSEL FOR ME DAISY  
_**

_This time, when the voice roared out, both girls jumped: it had gotten louder. _

_"Make it stop!" screamed Hallie, releasing the sides of the boat so she could hold both hands over her ears. She wanted to be home. She wanted to be anywhere but here.  
_

_****____YOU MADE IT TO LET ME IN_

_The other girl reached out and grabbed Hallie's wrists in her hands, preventing her from blocking out the noise. _

_"There's no time for that now!" she said forcefully, countering Hallie's shocked expression with a hard one of her own. "If you want to beat him, you have to be ready to fight! If you don't, he'll just use you to get exactly what he wants."  
_

_"But what _does_ he want?" Hallie whimpered._

_The girl hesitated. "He wants to come into your world."_

_"What?"_

_**I AM COMING TO YOU  
**_

_This time, the voice was so loud that it stirred the water around them, causing the boat to sway unsteadily. Overwhelmed, __Hallie yanked her hands back from the girl, terror clawing up her throat. "Just who are you?" she shrieked accusingly, pointing directly at the girl's startled face__. "How do you know about what's going? Did you bring me here? This__—_This has to be your fault, YOU did this!___"_

___Before the words had even left her mouth, Hallie regretted them. But there was no taking it back. For the barest of moments, she saw a flash of hurt cross the girl's face.  
_

___"You don't...you don't remember me, Hallie?" she asked, her voice soft._

___Hallie opened her mouth to apologize, but before she could get the words out, the cruel voice in the cavern issued another guttural roar, cutting her off._

**___DAISY!_**

_"Who is Daisy? Why does he keep saying that?" Hallie cried, fear crowding out her other emotions. "I don't understand__—_does he think it's my name?"

_"I'm not sure," the girl said, terse. "Listen to me, Hallie. I don't know exactly what this thing is, or why it's after you, but I do know that it has a dark heart, and is extremely powerful. If he gets the chance, he'll hurt you and everyone that you love."_

_"Then how do I stop him?" Hallie asked, trembling._

_"You fight him. You fight despair," the girl said clearly. "Fight your fear, and anger, and hopelessness. He's a creature of hatred and evil. He'll try to break your spirit first, to manipulate you, but you can't let that happen no matter what. Don't let yourself be ruled by fear or he'll take everything from you."_

_Hallie looked at the younger girl for the first time, then, really _looked_ at her. Recognition dawned at last._

_"I remember you," she said, her soft voice breaking from the rocking of the boat beneath them. "I know who you are! I remember now! You, oh my _gosh_, you've been missing for__, _I don't even know how long___—__are _you real?_ Is _this_ real?"_

_The girl didn't answer for a moment. "I don't...I don't honestly know if I am real at all," she said finally, looking away. "But you are real, Hallie, and this is real. That's all that matters."_

_**DO NOT INTERFERE!**_

_The voice so loud now it was nearly deafening, violent enough that it seemed to rattle the very foundations of reality. Both Hallie and the girl screamed, covering their ears. The world around them __spun_ and then tipped sideways, water smashing against the boat and tipping it all the way over. With another scream, Hallie found herself thrown violently into the river below, her whole body submerged in inky blackness.

_There was no way to orient herself in the water. She opened her eyes and saw nothing, only darkness expanding infinitely in all directions. With a surge of terror, Hallie realized she might drown, and she began thrashing her limbs wildly in every direction, clawing desperately for air she couldn't find._

**_HERE I AM DAISY  
_**

_Hallie felt another presence moving toward her in the water, though she couldn't see it in the darkness. Enormous and ominous, like a living black hole, its movements created a terrifyingly strong current in the river that threatened to drag her deeper.  
_

_She felt, rather than saw, a pair of enormous mismatched claws reaching out to seize her in the water._

**_YOU WON'T DO IT AGAIN_**

_"Hallie! HALLIE!"  
_

_Even from underwater, Hallie could hear the younger girl calling her____—_but the beast was louder. 

**_YOU WON'T STOP ME LIKE LAST TIME  
_**

_"Hallie, fight it! You have to fight!"_

**_I'M COMING TO YOU DAISY  
_**

_"You're close! Don't give up! ____You're still my friend, Hallie I__—_I don't want to lose you!"

_**I'M COMING TO YOU  
**_

_"__Please, don't let him take you! Fight! Don't stop fighting! Hallie, can you hear me!"_

_**I'M COMING TO YOU FIRST AND THEN THE BOY** _

_"He can't pass through to the real world unless you let him! He'll come for you in your sleep, but you have to fight him! Hallie! Are you listening to me? I don't know exactly what he's trying to get from you, but you CANNOT allow him to enter your world, do you understand? He'll come for you in your dreams! HALLIE!"_

_**DAISY  
DAISY  
DAISY  
DAISY  
DAISY  
**_

_—_

The alarm blared, signaling the arrival of 7.15 AM.

Hallie Bell opened her eyes with a start.


	4. Micah, Eva: No Companions

a/n: To anyone who's made it this far in the story so far, thanks a whole lot for reading! I think this is the most I've ever written for a consecutive fic in such a short period of time, even if technically it's more like a bunch of wildly different stories all at once. I'm having a lot of fun with this, I really am, so I hope at least a few of you are too.

If you'd be willing to drop a quick review—even if it's just to tell me which characters (if any) you like and/or want to see more of—I would really, really appreciate the input!

* * *

**DREAM BIG: A DIGIMON TAMERS STORY  
**

_"A Traveler with No Companions"_

When he heard the sound of someone at the door, Micah was surprised to find Eva standing outside waiting for him in the mid-afternoon sun.

"_Che_, what are you doing here?" he demanded anyway, crossing his arms and standing squarely in the center of the doorway. "It's the middle of the day. Shouldn't you be in class?"

Eva scowled at him, her expression bordering on mutinous. "I don't care about school," she said.

"Yes, you do," he said with annoyance, mostly for the sake of argument. "Nona told me, how your _mamá_ is always talking about your high marks in school. You never earn anything below _distinguido_, she says, always a 9 or 10 on all of your papers!"

Eva had always been smart with books and letters, even back in kindergarten. She and Micah grew up as next-door neighbors at the outskirts of Buenos Aires, had gone to pre-primary school together, inseparable and the best of friends—but that had been a long time ago. Back then, Micah and his mother still lived in Argentina, while his father worked elsewhere for his firm. Time had changed all that. He and Eva were both eleven, now, and the two of them were neighbors only in name.

Eva reddened, glancing away. "I'm just smart, is all," she muttered. "It's not like I study."

Micah rolled his eyes. "So what did you want?"

"I just came by to ask if you wanted to, you know, hang out one last time before you go," she said, shrugging like she didn't care one way or another. "I mean, after today...you'll be gone again. This is the last chance we'll get to see each other in a long time."

So she had remembered. For all Eva's attitude, though, Micah wasn't really surprised. She'd come by to visit him countless times at his _abuelos_' house since he'd arrived in Argentina at the start of June. Sometimes she came straight over after school. Micah himself didn't have classes during the day like she did—it was September now, and he'd be starting soon at his new school in the United States—but he'd still managed to find plenty of excuses to turn her away when she arrived at his doorstep. The other kids in the neighborhood and at school liked Eva plenty; she didn't need someone like Micah for company. He preferred to be by himself anyway.

He wasn't interested in seeing Eva. He didn't want to see anyone.

"I can't hang out today," he told her flatly, folding his arms. "I'm busy. I've got to pack up all my stuff together for the plane ride tomorrow. My flight leaves early."

"Oh. Right." Eva's tone betrayed no disappointment, but her shoulders slumped forward a bit. She reached up slowly to touch her collar with one hand, fiddling with the frayed threads of her grey scarf. "I knew that. I just figured we could...if you had the time, maybe we could do something. For old times' sake."

"For old times' sake?" Micah asked suspiciously.

She nodded, hunching her shoulders, so that her entire frame was dwarfed by the too-large winter coat she wore, though Buenos Aires wasn't terribly cold in September. Eva nearly always walked around in cheap secondhand clothes around these days—like she thought they made her cool, better than Micah or any of the other kids in the neighborhood. None of them wanted to talk to Micah aside from her; the neighborhood children only pointed and called him _gringo_ in pointed whispers whenever he passed. He'd be glad not to see them again after tomorrow morning, although he didn't think his prospects for fitting in would be much better in North America.

"I was thinking..." Eva began, interrupting his thoughts. "You know those Digimon cards, Micah? The ones that are always lying on the floor in your bedroom here? I kind of wondered, if you wanted to play, we could always..."

Micah stared at her, surprised. That was precisely the last thing he'd expected to hear from someone like Eva. Every time she came over the past few months, she'd always rolled her eyes in a superior way whenever she caught sight of those cards, calling it a silly game for children.

"Digimon?" Micah demanded. "Since when do you care about Digimon?"

She huffed, blowing a strand of indigo-black hair out of her face. "Never mind," she said quickly. "Forget I said anything. It was a dumb idea."

Micah bit his lip, not trusting himself to say anything. Eva's offhand suggestion had provoked a sudden, unexpected wave of conflicting emotion in him—thinking about Digimon made Micah think of England again, and of Robyn. He had told himself again and again over the past three months that he was completely over what had happened between the two of them before he left; however, it seemed that even now some of his residual anger and bitterness remained.

"I'm not really into Digimon that much anymore," he finally confessed, unfolding his arms. "I only used those cards in the first place because they connected with this Digimon virtual pet I used to have. ¿_Qué embole_, no? It was just a little digital device on a key chain—you had to feed the monster inside and raise it, so that it could evolve into a bigger one. Mine was called Witchmon, a lady sorcerer. A friend of mine—I mean, someone I knew back then, she bought it for me back in England, and I bought her one with a Wizarmon. But I don't have my v-pet anymore. It was only a dumb toy to begin with."

He didn't tell Eva the whole truth about the virtual pets: he hadn't lost his by accident. He'd thrown it away, in a fit of anger and betrayal.

And he'd thrown away his friendship with Robyn along with it.

Eva was staring at Micah now with a strange, unreadable expression, like she didn't know what to make of his story. Suddenly embarrassed, Micah decided he didn't want to stand here and talk to her any longer.

He was just opening his mouth to ask her to leave, when he heard the sound of footsteps coming up behind him from the hall.

"Who's at the door, _chabón?_" a familiar voice asked over his shoulder. Nona walked up and peered outside from behind him, trying to catch a glimpse of their guest. "It's an odd time of day for visitors."

Micah grimaced. He couldn't say anything rude in front of his grandmother. "It's no one—" he began to protest, but it was no use: Nona had already seen Eva standing outside, and the older woman's whole face lit up at once. A smile deepened the wrinkles around Nona's mouth, and the skin around her dark black eyes crinkled kindly.

"Eva? Oh Eva, _mina_, it's always good to see you!" Nona cooed, laughing delightedly. She pushed Micah gently to the side, then stepped out to wrap the young girl in a hug. "Did you take off school today? That's not a good thing to do, _niña_**,** but it's still so good of you to come and see Micah before his big trip—"

"It's not a trip!" Micah shouted suddenly.

Nona broke off, faltering. Her smile faded. Eva stared openly at him, her expression frozen.

Micah felt his face heat up almost immediately, but he didn't stop.

"It's not a trip, Nona!" he said angrily, looking accusingly at her and then Eva in turn. "I'm leaving for America tomorrow morning—THAT'S my home from now on! I'm only stuck here now because Papá was too stupid to figure out his plans ahead of time, before he took on the job! I'm leaving tomorrow and I'm not ever coming back if I can help it!"

Nona's face grew angry, and she opened her mouth to reprimand Micah, but Eva spoke up first.

"No, no. You're right, Micah," she said. Her tone remained disinterested as ever, but her gaze was fixed on the ground, refusing to meet Micah's eyes. "It's a big move tomorrow morning. I shouldn't be bothering you when you have so many important things to do."

"That's nonsense," Nona said quickly, turning toward Micah with a stern frown. "He had no business acting so rude like that, especially in front a young lady. That boy has no _onda_, I don't know where his attitude comes from!"

She moved to place her hand comfortingly on Eva's shoulder, but Eva frowned and shrugged her off.

"No. It's fine, Sra. Vasquez," she said flatly, tucking her hands into the pockets of her jeans. "I get what Micah's trying to say. After all, he and his family have moved so many times that it would be stupid if he still thought of _this_ place as his home. I mean, he's been all over the world, so even a big city like Buenos Aires must seem pretty boring, right?"

Something inside Micah boiled at her words. Did she think he _liked_ being uprooted from where he lived every other year? Did she think it was fun having to learn so many new languages, being forced to start all over at different schools with kids he'd never met?

"Just go home, Eva!" he said loudly, nearly threatening. "We're not even friends anymore, so stop talking like you know me! I don't like you at all!"

At that moment, Robyn's faced flashed in his mind, reminding Micah painfully why someone like him couldn't have friendships that lasted: not because of his father's job, not because he was always moving, but just because he was just a jerk. He'd made Robyn so mad at him three months ago that she'd probably never talk to him again, and Micah wasn't afraid to the same thing here and now. After all, these sorts of fights were inevitable. He always messed it up with of his friends in the end. Why should Eva be any different?

Without another word, he spun around in the doorway and ran into the house, dashing through the hallway and up the stairs to his bedroom. Nona shouted up after him, and Eva's voice echoed worriedly after her, but Micah ignored them, slamming the door to his room behind him and locking it shut.

He flung himself down on his bed, refusing to answer the knocks that came at at his door several minutes later. When he found a stray bundle of Digimon cards loose in his blankets, he threw them angrily onto the floor, letting them scatter everywhere in a mess.

"_Qué un quilombo,_" he moaned miserably to himself, burying his face in his pillow as though he could block out the world. "I don't want to go, I don't want to stay. Why even bother to try, when there's nothing that's ever the same in the end?"

Unbeknownst to him, one of the Digimon cards he'd thrown to the ground suddenly began to glow. While Micah hid his face, unseeing, in his bed, the card transformed, shining out with a bright burst of light: it drastically changed in appearance, becoming unmarked and completely blue, with a only holographic insignia of a monster printed on the back.

Micah lay shaking in his bed until he fell asleep.


	5. Marat: The Devils You Know

a/n: I will warn you now that this chapter contains references to **child abuse**. There's nothing more explicit shown than a slap to the face (think of the flashback scene in _Digimon Adventure, _when Taichi's mother hits him for endangering his sister), but all the same, I thought it deserved a warning.

In response to dictionary's question posted in the review for last chapter: I currently have plans for **nine** primary recurring characters in this story, with many more secondary/supporting cast members appearing as well. Primary characters will have developed arcs, some others might only show up for a chapter or two. Not all characters who have appeared so far are part of the 'main' cast. The reason they've been introduced this way now is that all the events taking place in this first round of chapters occur over the course of a single day, in different parts of the world. There are loose threads connecting all the characters together, but if they ever meet up in one place at the same time as a group, it probably won't be until the very end of the story.

After this chapter I'll be going back and tying up the loose ends/cliffhangers from previous installments, which hopefully won't take up longer than one additional chapter for each. _Hopefully_.

(Additional note—Pidmon is an angel-type Digimon. Think Angemon, but with more red ribbons for decoration. You can always do a quick web search if you need a visual reference.)

* * *

**DREAM BIG: A DIGIMON TAMERS STORY  
**

_"Better the Devils You Know..."_

Marat was picking his Digimon cards out of the trash when his mother came to him.

"...Are you all right, _solnyshko?_" she asked him, quietly worried.

The pet name meant nothing to Marat. There was no 'sunshine' in their small, cramped apartment in Central Saint Petersburg. Even the inside air was damp and tense, like an omnipresent storm waiting to break.

"Yes, mama, I'm fine," Marat answered firmly, telling himself that it was true. He calmly picked another four cards out of the waste bin and shuffled them back into his deck, careful to wipe the bits of food off them first.

His mother seemed to debate with herself for a moment before speaking again. "Marat...I know you and your _otchim_ don't always get along very well, but..."

Marat said nothing, but his hands immediately went still in the trash. Beside him, his mother's words slowly trailed off into nothing, and he didn't have to turn around to sense the helpless expression written on her face. She never knew whose side to take when he and his stepfather fought.

"Ruslan means well. He really does, for both of us," she said softly, putting a hand on Marat's shoulder. "I understand that his temper can be a bit much to handle sometimes, but please try to understand where he's coming from. He works very hard for our family, so that we can all be happy together. It's so hard for a woman like me to get remarried after a divorce, Marat, you know that. He's been good to us."

"He's never been good to _me_. He doesn't care if _I'm_ happy," Marat said, keeping his gaze determinedly fixed on the trash as he fished out his remaining cards. "He doesn't want me here. He told me I'm selfish, that I don't deserve to live here in his home—he said I may as well be out begging in the subway, like those homeless _besprizorniki_ kids. I'll never amount to anything better."

"He didn't mean that, Marat_,_" his mother said, her tone pleading. "He was just angry. I wish you would try a little harder, not to do things that upset him."

"But mama, everything I do upsets him," Marat said simply, finally turning to look at her. "He threw all my Digimon cards in the trash, just because I forgot to fold up my bed this morning. I didn't say anything rude to him—I promise I didn't. He doesn't like my eyes."

"Marat, that's ridiculous," his mother said, exasperated.

Marat turned away from her, narrowing his red eyes. For the thousandth time, he wished he was a few years older than ten, old enough for people to actually listen to him. Nothing ever changed when he tried to argue for himself.

"I miss _babushka_," he said softly, though not enough to fully disguise his tone of resentment and anger. "You let Ruslan send her away to the hostel. He said she couldn't live here anymore. What if he asks to get rid of me next? Would you let him?"

"_Marat!_"

He met her gaze directly, cold anger rising. "I hate him, mama," Marat said. "I wish you had never married him."

His mother slapped him across the face.

The cards in Marat's hands fell to the kitchen floor, scattering everywhere. His dark red eyes had gone wide. Slowly, he reached up one hand in disbelief, touching his fingertips to the angry red mark on his face.

His mother had gone pale. She looked like she could scarcely believe what she'd done.

"I'm so sorry, " she begged, reaching for Marat's face.

Marat opened his mouth to tell her it was fine, but before he could speak, he saw a flash of something white moving in the corner of one eye. Hearing a rustle of wings, he jerked his head; whatever it was moved too fast to register as more than a blur. He felt a rush of cool gust of air brushing the side of his face.

"I have to go," Marat said quickly, scooping his Digimon cards together hastily in both hands. Without another word, he bolted for the door, seizing his unattended wallet from where it had been left sitting on the kitchen table.

"Marat! Wait!" his mother cried out behind him, but it was too late. He fled the apartment in seconds, bolting downstairs toward the bustling Russian metropolis below.

—

As soon as Marat hit the street, he immediately ran for the bus station, little caring where the line took him so long as it got there fast. When the bus pulled up minutes after, he stepped aboard and quickly paid his fare, jostling his way toward the back of the bus where a few benches still remained unoccupied.

Marat took an empty seat for himself, feeling some of the tension ease from his back and shoulders. He glanced out the dirt-streaked window beside him. It was nearing the middle of September, but despite the heavy cloud cover over Saint Petersburg, he knew the sun wouldn't set for at least another hour or two. Marat was suddenly grateful he'd been wearing his hooded jacket when he left: with the clouds and humidity the way they were this time of year, there was no telling when it might start to rain again.

Remembering the Digimon cards still held in his hand, Marat took a moment to reshuffle his deck and straighten it, before returning the cards to their leather holster at his belt. Settling back, he took a look around the bus, making sure none of the other passengers were paying attention. Then he inclined his head the slightest fraction of a nod.

At once, a calm and harmonious voice in his mind began to speak:

_I don't like it when those humans try to hurt you._

"It was only a slap, Pidmon, it barely hurt," Marat muttered lowly, so quietly that the words scarcely left lips. He didn't want anyone else on the bus to overhear, and his partner wouldn't have any trouble picking up his voice. "Besides, mama's never hit me before today. I don't think she's going to do it again."

_She might. I don't trust her any more than the other one._

"She's my mother. She's different from him," Marat snapped.

He realized he was speaking too loudly and ducked his head, reducing his voice to a controlled whisper.

"If she does it again, I'll handle it, Pidmon," he said quietly, leaving no room for argument. "I've told you already that you can't ever show yourself while I'm at home. It's too dangerous for my family to see you. You might get taken away or shot at. Promise me you won't do that again, no matter what happens."

_I won't promise that, Marat. No true digimon could watch and do nothing while its tamer was under the threat of harm._

"No one is threatening me," Marat told him with annoyance.

_Do not fear, Marat, _Pidmon said._ Whatever happens, I won't allow anyone to separate us.  
_

"That would be easier to believe, if you'd agree to stay out of sight and leave my family alone," Marat said, his frown deepening.

There was a pause before Pidmon answered.

_I'll never understand why you humans feel the need to grant your loyalty to others who are undeserving, solely the basis of blood and family ties, _the digimon said, in a tone that might have been described as 'annoyed' coming from a less celestial being. _If you wished to leave your home, Marat, I would protect you—no matter where in this world you decided to go.  
_

Marat's balled up his hands into fists in his lap. "I don't have any reason to leave," he whispered firmly, letting his partner know in no uncertain terms that the conversation had ended.

When the bus reached its next stop, he immediately stood and exited, entering the bustling city street.

—

Saint Petersburg was really a beautiful city, at least in terms of architecture. The central portion of downtown, bounded by rivers on either side, was home to so many parks and monuments that the United Nations had named it a World Heritage Site about ten years ago. That was where Marat was headed now. He'd gotten off the bus not far from the metro station, _Petrogradskaya_, and from there it was only a short hike across the bridge over the _reka Neva_. Central Saint Petersburg was where he'd find the fancy, historic palaces that the area was best known for among tourist circles, but more importantly, it was also home to the nicest parks in the city. Marat liked to walk there when he needed to be alone.

He traveled beneath the long shadow of the television tower across the street, which he knew stood over 300 m high and was visible all the way from his family's apartment. Feeling Pidmon's eyes on him, Marat glanced up at the tower, and smiled faintly when he spotted a shadowed silhouette crouched all the way at the top. Marat knew his partner digimon wouldn't let himself be seen by anyone else besides him, and it was always reassuring to know he was there keeping an eye out. You couldn't be too careful.

He made his way toward the long bridge that would lead him to the other bank of the river, feeling relatively at peace considering how his evening had gone thus far. Marat heard adults complain sometimes that Saint Petersburg was too "Western" in its presentation, not as Russian as it was European, but he liked it here. Given that his own mother was half-European by birth, Marat couldn't honestly say he cared one way or another about the atmosphere. The gloomy weather in the city could be oppressive at times, and frequent visits by foreign ambassadors or important politicians in publicity events meant that the police were always keeping a watchful eye out for unusual activity in the streets—still, if you didn't mind the clouds and the rain, Saint Petersburg was really a nice place to live.

Stepping out onto the bridge, he suddenly caught sight of another boy standing a dozen or so meters ahead of him on the walkway. The boy's hair was long and tousled, sandy in color, and he looked to be perhaps a few years older than Marat. The thing that stood out most about him was that he was dressed all in black, from the heavy-looking jacket he wore zipped to the neck, down to the metal soles of his combat boots. Marat's first guess was that the boy couldn't possibly be from around here, but he then again, he also didn't seem to have either the star-struck or apprehensive looks that most tourists wore plainly. The boy was leaning casually over the side of the bridge, staring down at the river below like he didn't have a care in the world.

Marat likely would have forgotten about him as soon as he passed, but when he was only a few meters away from the boy on the walkway, the stranger suddenly stood straight and turned around to look at Marat directly. Marat didn't stop walking, but it was a very near thing: the boy was staring at him intensely and unapologetically, which wasn't all that strange strange, but he was also smiling widely in a way that made Marat feel distinctly unsettled. Maybe he was a tourist, after all. Nobody smiled that way at total strangers in Russia unless they didn't know any better. Marat felt the other boy's eyes watching his back long after he'd passed.

He was nearly halfway across the bridge when he felt Pidmon's presence intruding at the back of his mind. The angel-type digimon sounded uncharacteristically grim.

_Marat. I don't mean to be abrupt, but I'm sensing a strange presence coming from beneath the bridge you're walking on. Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary?_

The oddness of the unnerving boy in black didn't even occur to him. "No, I haven't," Marat said, glancing around to make sure there wasn't anything amiss with the surrounding pedestrians or the vehicles passing by on the bridge. "What kind of presence do you mean?"

_I want to say it's a new digimon, but I can't be completely certain until I see it for myself. There's something very dark and strange about the energy I feel it giving off. Try and hurry over to the other side, if you can.  
_

"_Ladno_," Marat said aloud calmly with a nod, already breaking into a jog. Instinctively, he put a hand to the holster at his belt as he ran, just to make certain that his card deck was still right where it was supposed to be.

From the clouds above him, scattered raindrops began slowly to fall, lightly sprinkling the pavement. Marat sighed, thankful again for the hood of his sweatshirt, and silently he and began to work out how much time he would have to investigate the odd phenomenon under the bridge, before he had to return home for the evening.

Behind Marat, the smiling stranger in black had vanished from the bridge.


	6. Luc, Noémi: Data and Blood

a/n: And now back to France. I didn't wrap up everything I needed to get finished this chapter, but it's already the longest by far so I figured I'd split it. I don't know whether I'll finish up this storyline immediately or move on to Daniel or one of the others in the next chapter, but right now I'm leaning toward the latter. Feel free to let me know what you'd rather see.

Three digimon appear in this chapter—Golemon pretty much looks like a giant rock-tree monster, with a metal helmet strapped onto its head with a belt. DORUmon, on the other hand, is a medium-sized purple fox/dog-looking thing with a square muzzle, sharp claws, a large furry tail, and (for some inexplicable reason) a pair of tiny black bat wings. DORUmon is capable of standing and walking on either two legs or four. As for Gomamon, well, he doesn't look much different from the one in _Digimon Adventure_ who was Jyou Kido's partner. I'd recommend a quick web search if you want a better visual reference for any of them.

As always, please don't hesitate to drop a review, even if it's just to tell me I'm doing something wrong with my setting information, or to tell me which characters you like/dislike! PLEASE.

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**DREAM BIG: A DIGIMON TAMERS STORY  
**

_"Data and Blood and Bones"_

As soon as the fog rose up along the riverbank, Luc spun around in disbelief, unable to believe his eyes. A second later he felt Noémi grab his arm.

"Stay with me, Luc," she commanded. Then, much more worriedly, she added, "What's all this _fog?_ I can't see anything!"

Luc felt his pulse quicken. This was just like it had been in his dream.

Rather than making everything dark, the grey fog surrounding them was almost painfully bright. Luc put up his free hand over his eyes, squinting in every direction. He could see nothing solid, no matter where he turned.

"What do we do, Noémi?" he asked, moving closer to her by instinct. "Fog isn't supposed to be like this, is it?"

A part of Luc wanted to find the nearest way out to safety. Another, deeper part of him wanted to venture deeper into the strange mist, to see if anything else from his dream was true. Like the digimon.

Noémi would yell at him if she heard him thinking things like that, especially while they were stuck, but Luc couldn't help but wonder anyway. He wanted so badly for it to be true. He wanted to believe that the boy he'd seen in his dream last night was real, that he had met a real-life _digimon_ _tamer_.

He felt Noémi squeeze his hand in reassurance. "It's probably just the weather being strange today," she said, sounding forcibly confident in her own words. "I can't see which way the river is, or the city, so we'll have to walk very carefully to get out. Follow me, Luc."

Slowly, they began to walk one step at a time through the fog, keeping their eyes fixed on their feet moving in the grass. They hadn't made it very far when a loud, guttural roar suddenly came from the white space dead ahead of them.

"What was _that?_" Noémi demanded, taking an involuntary step back. She tightened her grip on Luc's hand. "There's something out there!"

The ground beneath them suddenly rocked with light tremors, stopping a moment later, as though something heavy had crashed onto the earth. Another roar came from the fog directly ahead, horrible and loud. It didn't sound like any animal he knew.

Luc's pulse raced. When he strained his eyes, he thought he could see a large, looming silhouette moving in the distance, shrouded entirely by fog.

"Luc, come on!" Noémi cried, pulling at his arm. She tried to get him to move with her in the opposite direction. "We need to get out of here! It could be dangerous!"

But the feeling of déjà vu drowning out his senses was too powerful to ignore. "I have to see what it is!" Luc blurted out, wrenching his hand from hers.

Before Noémi could realize what he was doing, he tore off his backpack and threw it to the ground. He sprinted forward toward the source of the noise.

"I'm sorry!" he called behind him, his gut twisting guiltily.

He heard Noémi gasp. A second later her footsteps pounded in the grass behind him.

"Luc!" she cried out, sounding furious. "Luc, get back here, now!"

He kept running.

The fog cloud was exactly as it had been in his dream, blinding white, too thick to see through, yet somehow not at all damp when it clung to his clothes and skin. Luc ran until he saw that the air was beginning to thin out; with a jolt, he realized he'd reached the center. Just as he remembered, there was a large, cleared-out area in the middle of the cloud, devoid of all fog.

His eyes widened, seeing exactly what the enormous silhouette had been. He felt his feet stop dead of their own accord.

_"_Luc!_"_ Noémi cried out suddenly from behind him, emerging at a run from the dense fog. Luc half-registered her grabbing him by the shoulders; a distracted glance told him she had abandoned her backpack as well. "You—you idiot, Luc—_que diable es-tu en train de faire! _Are you completely insane?"

Still in shock, Luc was unable to answer her. Trembling, he raised one hand, pointing in disbelief at the scene unfolding before them. Apparently seeing something in his expression that gave her pause, Noémi stopped talking and turned quickly to look where he was indicating. As soon as she registered what she was seeing, his sister let out a blood-curdling scream.

There were two creatures, _monsters_, fighting at the center of the field. One was huge, and looked to be made out of boulders: its body had four limbs and was composed of rough, earth-colored chunks of rock, hewn together with stitches of rope and cord. Its lumpy head was adorned with a rough black metal helmet, crudely fixed in place by a leather belt, and two gaping eyeholes had been cut into the sides to allow the creature to see through its enormous eyes. Its back was covered in hollowed-out spikes, and a few of them were issuing thin jets of black smoke like some nightmarish cross between a whale blowhole and a chimney. It had enormous hands shaped like a human's, each knuckle its own rounded small boulder.

Luc recognized the monster immediately from his cards. _Golemon_.

The creature bellowed out, the same sound they had heard before, and clumsily it lumbered back and forth unsteadily in jerky, unhinged movements through the grass. A flash of movement along the creature's back informed Luc of the reason for Golemon's agony: there was a second, smaller monster darting up along the length of its body, tearing at its rocky flesh with its claws. The other creature's movements were so fast and nimble that Luc couldn't properly get a glimpse of it, but he could tell it was violet in color.

Beside him, Noémi seemed to be torn between fear and disbelief. "What _are_ those things?" she gasped, taking one step back and then another. "Is this, are they _real?_ Is someone shooting a movie?"

"They're digimon," Luc said in awe, feeling a sudden thrill of emotion in his chest. "Noémi, Noémi, they're DIGIMON! I don't know what the little one is, but the giant, that's a _Golemon—_I have his playing card! Those are real digimon!"

"What did you say?" Noémi asked disbelievingly, spinning to face him. "No, save it, never mind. We're getting out of here!"

Before either of them could move, however, a high-pitched cry like a child's pierced the air at their left. Spinning around in unison, Luc and Noémi saw another, third monster running toward them, vaguely aquatic-looking and much smaller than either of the others. With a shock, Luc recognized it as Gomamon.

"Heeeeeeeelllllp!" the digimon cried out, speaking like a human in ordinary French. "Heeeeellllp me, one of you! Please, please please please, save me!"

Noémi screamed. She seized Luc's hand and dragged him behind her at a run, heading for another part of the clearing. Luc followed without any resistance, his heart racing and mind completely overwhelmed. _Gomamon. __Child level,_ he remembered reading from the monster's description on the card. _ Sea animal digimon._ _Attacks include Sharp Claws, Bubble Barrier, Marching Fishes. A playful digimon who is very easily tamed._

Here in Vertou? Could this be happening? He had hoped for it with all his heart, but Luc's dreams hadn't prepared him for this.

They ran for the edge of the fog clearing. Before they could reach it, Gomamon ran to cut them off diagonally, leaping in their path. There was a desperate, plaintive look in its orange eyes that Luc didn't miss.

"Don't leave me here!" the creature wailed, waving its flipper-like arms in the direction of the fighting monsters. "He's going to kill that one, and then me next! I didn't _mean_ to follow them, but now I'm stuck in the digital field and I can't get back! Please help!"

Without any warning, Noémi shoved Luc hard behind her, forcing him to stagger to maintain his balance. She stepped boldly in front of him, her arms stretched out protectively to shield her younger brother.

"_Casse-toi! _Get away!" she snarled at Gomamon, taking an aggressive step forward. "I—I don't know what you are, but I will KILL you if you try to hurt my brother, do you understand? Out of our way!"

Luc gaped at Noémi, shocked. A wave of goosebumps prickled at the skin of his arms and neck. He'd _never_ heard his sister speak in that tone of voice before, issuing someone a threat like she actually meant it. Noémi's voice shook a bit, but her stance was firm, and nothing in countenance betrayed a single ounce of fear.

Gomamon shrank back, intimidated. _Easily tamed_, Luc remembered reading again from the card—and in that moment, an idea both wonderful and terribly impossible seized him by the throat and refused to let go, piercing him to his core.

"Noémi, wait," Luc began, reaching for her sleeve.

Behind them, there was another deafening roar—Golemon had taken another hit, and it fell hard to the ground with an impact that shook the earth. Luc and Noémi cried out, startled, and once they got righted on their feet again they instinctively turned their attention to the digimon battle.

As they watched, Golemon groaned weakly on the ground and struggled in vain to lift its heavy arms. Huge gashes had been littered across its rock-like body, great chunks of stone flesh missing or ripped away .

"Oh no, DORUmon is going to load him!" came a frantic cry from somewhere near Luc's feet.

Luc looked down to see Gomamon had scampered behind him to cower shaking under his legs. The small digimon held its paws up in front of its face, firmly covering its eyes.

"DORUmon?" Luc whispered, not recognizing the name. He realized it had to be the digimon that was attacking Golemon. "What do you mean, 'load him?' What's he going to do?"

"It's terrible! I can't watch!" Gomamon whimpered, its voice high and frightened like a child. "Some digimon do it to get stronger, but I don't like it! I'm s-scared!"

Luc didn't understand what he meant. Slowly, in a daze, he turned back toward the fallen Golemon, whose prone body had gone completely still in the grass. Standing atop it was the other, smaller digimon—DORUmon.

Luc didn't recognize the digimon from any of its cards. It was purple-furred, crouching on all fours like an animal, and it had clawed arms and legs that were wiry with ripcord muscles. There were patches of white fur at the ends of its paws and on its belly, as well as at the tip of its muzzle and tail. The digimon's mouth was drawn back in a feral snarl, and Luc could see bits of crumbled rock on its claws and teeth, evidence of where it had torn into its opponent. A large red gem like a ruby, triangle-shaped, gleamed from the purple digimon's forehead.

"_Be...deleted..._" DORUmon snarled atop its opponent, its voice rumbling low and inhuman.

Without warning, it leapt into the air. Noémi gasped, craning her neck to follow the digimon's movement.

Luc watched too, amber eyes wide. For a heart-stopping moment, he saw DORUmon's head turn ever-so-slightly midair to look their way, sharp gold eyes swiveling their direction. But then, almost immediately, its focus returned to the fallen Golemon.

"_Metal cannon,_" it growled out.

DORUmon opened its jaws wide, exposing sharp rows of teeth. A sphere of bright iron formed at the center of its mouth, and, with a sound like tearing clashing metal, it fired the attack down at Golemon.

"No!" Noémi shouted, seeming to understand something Luc didn't. He saw her blue eyes go wide.

She started to move forward, but it was too late.

The attack connected, creating a blast from impact that Luc and Noémi could feel all the way from across the digital field. The siblings cried out in unison, and so did Gomamon, all of them shielding their eyes—the whole area was lit up, blazing white energy in a brilliant flash toward the sky.

For a moment, they were all left blinded by the light. Luc breathed in raggedly, his whole body shaking uncontrollably. A moment later he became aware of Noémi's arms circling him like a vice: at some point, she'd grabbed him and pulled him close.

Luc felt his sister draw in a shaking breath against his shoulder. "L-Luc. Are you all right?" she said shakily.

"I think so," he answered. He removed his hands from his face, squinting through the painful bright spots in his vision. "Gomamon—are you still there?"

A small, furred paw lightly touched against the bottom of Luc's leg. "I'm—I'm here," Gomamon said, sounding very small and scared. "How did you know my name?"

"I'll tell you later," Luc said distractedly, trying to see what had become of Golemon.

It was immediately obvious that the rock-type digimon had been destroyed. The knowledge made Luc's blood run cold. Instead of a body or physical remains, particles of dirt-colored data now floated loosely through the air, the same color as Golemon's rock-like skin had been. That was all that was left. Luc felt a pang in his chest, at the thought of how suddenly and violently the creature had died.

If they were real, that meant they could die, too. His dreams hadn't warned him about that.

Below him, Luc could feel that Gomamon's paw on his leg was shaking. "DORUmon's going to load him now," the digimon whimpered.

"What does that mean?" Noémi asked, her voice tense. Looking up, Luc saw that she was staring down at Gomamon without any sign of fear—her whole body was still tensed, though, clearly wary of the wild digimon that had just destroyed Golemon.

"It means he'll take his data," Gomamon answered miserably, burying his face in Luc's leg. "That's what you do when you defeat another digimon."

Ahead of them, DORUmon stood on its back paws, lifting its head into the air with its ears raised. It sniffed the air a few times, muzzle twitching, and then went completely still. It closed its eyes, and its entire body began to glow.

As though drawn in by a magnet, the data particles in the air suddenly turned and flew in the digimon's direction, quickly absorbing into its body through its fur. When the data was all gone, the glow around DORUmon faded, and so did the cloud of fog surrounding them: the air quickly cleared, exposing the full extent of the damage the battle had done, a mess of ruined grass and mud on the riverbank.

Luc felt Noémi let go of him, stepping away. She was staring over at DORUmon.

"We need to leave now," she said softly, her voice tense.

Noémi wasn't speaking much louder than a whisper, but somehow, DORUmon seemed to hear her. Its golden eyes flew open immediately, head snapping in their direction to regard the two siblings and Gomamon.

"Come on!" Noémi cried, grabbing Luc's wrist. "We have to run!"

Luc didn't hear her. His entire consciousness was locked on DORUmon, now advancing toward them one step at a time. The digimon's whole body quivered, not from fear, but a pure and focused instinct to kill.

Luc realized with a wash of fear that the digimon wasn't staring at him, but at Gomamon, still hiding frightfully behind his legs. Luc's stomach plummeted.

He couldn't be a digimon tamer if his digimon was dead.

Unthinkingly, Luc reached down and scooped up Gomamon into his arms. The small digimon went quiet at once, curling its body to make itself smaller and easier to carry. It stared up at Luc with wide orange eyes, looking hopeful.

Luc drew back toward his sister, moving instinctively behind her as DORUmon got closer and closer.

"We can't just leave him," he said emphatically, nodding at Gomamon held tightly against his chest. "You saw what DORUmon did to the other one!"

"Luc, put him—put that _thing_ down now!" Noémi demanded loudly, glancing frantically at DORUmon, who growled as it continued moving their way. "You saw how strong that thing is, we can't fight something like that! This is between them, we have to get out of here! We're going home!"

"But Noémi!" he begged.

"Luc!" she screamed. "Please, just once do as I say!"

Gomamon buried its face in his shirt with a whine.

Luc glanced over and saw that DORUmon was only a few meters away. The sun reflected off its red forehead gem with a hard glare.

"Be..._deleted,_" it growled, purple fur bristling. The digimon lowered its upper half, crouching like an animal preparing to strike.

"Put him down, Luc!" Noémi screamed, trying to yank Gomamon away from him.

"I won't!" he screamed right back, holding onto the digimon for dear life. "I found him, Noémi, he's MINE!"

With a savage snarl, DORUmon interrupted, racing toward them on all fours in a blur of motion. Luc froze, his eyes widening as the danger he was in finally registered. He was too startled to cry out as the monster lunged.

He didn't know what happened next. One second, Noémi was standing beside him, her arms pulling at his, trying to force him to loosen his hold on his digimon.

The next second, she wasn't there—Luc spun his head in disbelief, turning, just in time to see Noémi throw her body in front of him like a human shield, so that she stood directly in DORUmon's path.

"Luc! Take Gomamon and run!" she screamed, not looking back at them. "Get to the street and find someone!"

DORUmon struck. Its jaws snapped closed around one of her arms, letting out a terrible snarl. Its teeth tore Noémi's skin like paper; within seconds, her arm was mess of blood. Noémi's entire body spasmed, feet sliding unsteadily on the grass as DORUmon tried bodily to wrestle her back. She determinedly held her ground.

"Go! Now!" she screamed at him again, her voice raw with pain.

Horrified, Luc did as she commanded. He turned and sprinted away as fast as he could, gripping tightly the digimon he'd traded for his sister's life.


	7. Hallie, Noah: Hidden Truths

a/n: Following this chapter, we probably won't be seeing Hallie and Noah again for a while.

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**DREAM BIG: A DIGIMON TAMERS STORY  
**

_"Hidden Truths and Hallways"_

The alarm blared. It was morning.

Still disoriented from the lingering remnants of her nightmare, Hallie had to lie still and just breathe for a moment, before she was able to make any movement to silence the noise. She rolled over on her mattress, clumsily smacking the _off_ button on her alarm, then sluggishly sat up in bed.

Her vision was still hazy with sleep—either that, or a bank of dense white fog had entered her room during the night. Hallie rubbed her eyes, bewildered, but when she opened them again her vision had mostly cleared. The sun was already partway risen, the light in the windows made more intense by the marigold paint coating her bedroom walls. Already, the frightening details of her dream were sleeping away.

A lingering feeling of sadness and pain settled in Hallie's chest as a memory struck her, one of the more unusual elements of her nightmare. The girl in the baseball shirt at the amusement park had been Alice McCoy. Hallie hadn't spared the younger girl a second thought in years, not since the news had come that she was missing. It had happened not long after the trip from Hallie's dream.

As far as she knew, poor Alice had never been found. She'd be about ten years old now, not much older than Noah. It was a depressing thought. Hallie shivered, trying not to think about what she would do if something like that happened to her only brother.

However, dwelling on a long-forgotten family friend wouldn't do her much good in the present. Hallie tried to shake off the sadness in the back of her mind by remembering that she'd only ever met Alice once or twice anyway. They hadn't been very close friends.

With another yawn, Hallie forced herself to rise out of bed, heading for the bathroom adjacent to her room.

Several minutes later, stepping out into the hallway, Hallie noticed with a feeling of dim surprise that there was a hum of light and sound coming from the nearby living room. That meant that the TV had been left on during the night, unless someone had woken up more recently to turn it on.

Stepping lightly in that direction, Hallie heard Noah's familiar voice drifting her way:

"-mon. That sounds scary. Thank you for staying..."

Yawning, Hallie stepped out of the hallway and into the room. "Who are you talking to?" she asked sleepily, addressing Noah.

With a start, he turned to her, his brown eyes quickly calming when they caught on her. "My friend," he said to Hallie simply. "She said you were having a bad dream."

Hallie paused for a moment, feeling a sudden flash of memory from the nightmare—_drowning in inky darkness, Alice screaming her name_—_a terrible laugh, large claws reaching through the water_—but she shook it off quickly enough, returning to the present with her brother.

"I guess I was," she said, feeling a little unsettled. "I don't remember that much of it. I think it was about the time we all went to Disneyland, with some of Mom and Dad's friends from college. They had their families with them."

Noah's brow wrinkled. "We went to Disneyland?" he asked, frowning.

"You were little. You wouldn't remember," Hallie told him reassuringly. "Anyway. How did your 'friend' know I was having a nightmare?" It would be just like Noah to sneak around the house alone while everyone else was still in bed.

"She was watching you in your room, Hal," Noah said, not missing a beat. "She thought you might be in trouble, because she saw something bad following you around earlier. She would stop it if it tried to do anything, though. She's tough."

Hallie shook her head, not pressing the issue. Noah had been going on endlessly about his new imaginary friend for weeks, though he'd refused to tell the rest of the family so much as her name_. It's a secret, _he insisted to them, again and again. _You're not supposed to find out yet._

Personally, Hallie figured he just hadn't come up with a name yet that he liked. For a seven-year-old, Noah could be surprisingly deliberative.

"Oh. Tell your 'friend' I said hi, then," Hallie said. She walked over and carded her fingers gently through her brother's auburn hair.

"I will. When she gets back," Noah promised in turn, turning his attention away from Hallie to the TV screen. "She's not here now."

Hallie wanted to ask him when he thought his friend might return, but then she got distracted, following his gaze to the flickering television. She groaned when she saw what her brother was watching.

"_2001_?" she asked incredulously, taking a few steps back and falling with a _thump_ onto the living room sofa behind them. "Again? Seriously_?_ Why can't you watch cartoons like other kids?"

He turned to look at her again. "This is my favorite movie," he said.

"It's boring," Hallie said with authority.

"It's Mommy's favorite, too."

"She's boring," Hallie said.

Shrugging, Noah looked away from her back to the screen.

For a time, they watched the movie together in silence. Hallie knew she ought to start getting ready for school, or at least make breakfast for the two of them, but instead she found herself dozing lightly on the couch, soothed by the whole room peacefully bathed in the soothing glow of _2001: A Space Odyssey_. Between Noah and her mother, Hallie thought she must've watched the stupid film a thousand times by now. She could hardly even remember the details of the plot.

_"I am a HAL 9000 computer,"_ a voice droned on the screen in monotone, grew more serene with each word. Hallie recalled that it belonged to the ship's creepy talking computer, HAL. That flat voice had always creeped her out as a child, but Noah didn't seem to mind it. _"I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois, on the twelfth of January, 1992._"

Still sleepy, Hallie cracked her eyes open to watch. A thought struck her suddenly, and she found herself wondering for the first time if her nickname—Hal—or even her her full name Hallie, had been a tribute to the AI character. Her mother had mentioned once or twice that she had been completely obsessed with this movie backin college, when she was a student of robotics at Palo Alto University. It sounded like something her crazy mom might do.

Hallie hoped it was only a weird coincidence. It would be too embarrassing on top of everything else if it turned out she'd been named after a lousy computer. Being a fifteen-year-old girl with a name that hadn't seen popular use since the nineteenth century was hard enough, without any geeky history behind it.

_"My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song,"_ HAL 9000 droned on, its voice fading in and out._ "If you'd like to hear it, I can sing it for you..."_

Onscreen, the astronaut—Dave, Hallie remembered, the character's name was Dave—breathed hard, his eyes flickering nervously back and forth. _"Yeah,"_ he said, sounding exhausted. _"I'd like to hear it, HAL. Sing it for me."_

_"It's called 'Daisy,'"_ HAL said.

Goosebumps rippled down Hallie's arms all of a sudden. She didn't know why, but something about the name of that song disturbed her. It had never bothered her before today, but she felt like it was tied to something dark and important.

_"Daisy, Daisy...give me your answer, do..."_ HAL intoned listlessly, its monotone voice slowing and rapidly growing weaker. _"I'm...h-half-crazy...all for the l-love...of...youuu..."_

Unable to shake off a strange sense of _wrongness_, Hallie stood up abruptly from the couch. _Daisy_, she thought uneasily. Where had she heard that name?

She decided after another moment that she probably didn't want to know anyway.

"Time to turn the movie off," Hallie told her brother loudly, reaching for the remote at the end of the couch so she could power off the VCR. "Come on, Noah. You're already up, let's go eat breakfast—we have to leave for school pretty soon."

To his credit, Noah didn't whine when she stopped the movie. He climbed obediently to his feet without complaint, following Hallie into the kitchen.

"What's for breakfast?" he asked her curiously.

She opened the pantry. "Eggs or cereal today, Noh-boy," she told him apologetically, not finding any pancake mix on the shelves. It looked as though Dad had forgotten to buy it yesterday at the store.

"Oh." Noah walked to the table and clambered up onto a wooden chair to wait for his food. "Can I have cereal, then?"

"Sure." Hallie picked out his favorite kind and pulled down a bowl from the cabinet, grateful that her brother was so low-maintenance. Some kids threw a fit when they couldn't have exactly what they wanted to eat, but Noah had always been well-behaved. He didn't even eat his cereal with milk.

"Here you go," she said, placing the bowl in front of him.

He took the spoon from her hand with a smile. "Thanks, Hallie," he said, contentedly taking a few bites.

"I'll be right back," she told him, walking out of the kitchen toward the hallway. "I'm going to go make sure Mom's awake."

Her mother was. In fact, when Hallie got to her parents' bedroom, her mom only wished her a good morning before hastily ushering Hallie out, saying that she needed to get dressed and put on her make-up. As if anyone from the PC company would care about something like that.

As Hallie was walking back from the hall through the living room again, her eyes caught on something small that was sitting on the floor near the television. She walked over to take a closer look. It was one of Noah's toys, a small, egg-shaped plastic device with an electronic screen at the center. The toy was white with a golden circle of color at the middle.

She picked it up and brought it to Noah in the kitchen. "I think you forgot something," she told him, setting the device next to his cereal bowl on the table.

His brown eyes widened. "Oh_,_" he said loudly, picking up the toy and holding it close to him. He looked at Hallie. "Thanks, Hal. I'm not supposed to forget this."

"How come?" Hallie asked.

Noah held the toy in his lap and frowned at it, running a thumb over a few unmarked buttons at the bottom. "It's a special device," he said. "My friend gave it to me. I'm not supposed to lose it, not ever."

"Your friend gave it to you?" Hallie asked, raising an eyebrow. "The one who was spying on me in my room earlier?"

"Not spying," Noah said. "_Guarding_. Protecting."

"It sure was nice of her to give you a toy like that," Hallie said dubiously. _Her_ imaginary friends had never been so generous.

Noah nodded, then stopped for a moment to think.

"She didn't _give_ it to me, exactly," he said, now looking a bit confused. "But I still got it 'cause of her. It makes her stronger against bad monsters."

Hm. That sounded like something out of a kids' show. Hallie shrugged, ultimately deciding she didn't care enough to probe further. "If you want to take that thing to school, you'll have to keep it safe in your backpack," she said.

"Okay. Don't tell Mommy I have it," Noah said, setting the device in his lap so he could pick up his cereal spoon. "She'll get mad if she sees it."

Hallie frowned. "You didn't steal that from someone in your class, did you?" she asked, suspicious.

Noah stared blankly at her. The thought obviously hadn't occurred to him. "Huh?" he asked, blinking.

"Never mind," Hallie said quickly. "How come you think Mom would get mad at you about your toy, Noah?"

He shrugged unconcernedly, starting to eat again. "I hath a dream 'bout it," he said around a mouth full of cereal. He quickly swallowed, turning to stare dreamily out the kitchen window. "It was one of the dreams when I'm still awake."

Hallie shook her head. _Brother of mine_, she thought to herself. It'd be too easy, wouldn't it, if he ever started to make sense?

Leaving Noah to his breakfast, she headed off to her room to get dressed. She didn't think again about her brother's strange toy, or her nightmare of Alice McCoy.


	8. Noémi, Luc: One Who Commands

a/n: As mentioned previously (I believe), this preliminary story arc covers events occurring at roughly the same time in different parts of the world. I had to change up the rotation order to keep it chronological, but that just means we get a resolution for one of our cliffhangers a little early. Next up will Daniel or Marat.

As always, reviews are my precious lifeblood. If you review, I'll personally arrive at your home with flowers. Actually, if you review I won't do that, and you'll be happier for it. Honestly I won't do that regardless of whether you review, because I'm not that powerful or motivated an individual, but I will still appreciate you a whole lot. Please review if you enjoy this or really hated it. Please.

* * *

**DREAM BIG: A DIGIMON TAMERS STORY  
**

_"One Who Gives Commands"_

When she heard the sound of Luc's running footfalls fade from the grass behind her, Noémi shuddered hard and let out sob of pain she'd been holding in. The monster's teeth—the _digimon's_ teeth, she corrected herself with a wash of nausea—were still sunk into the flesh of her arm, drawing blood that ran freely into the mud by the riverbank. Its jaws snapped, piranha-like, at the flesh of arm, tearing skin like paper wherever they landed. Pain lanced all the way up her shoulder, but Noémi was too desperate to care.

She stood head-to-head with snarling digimon, caught in a deadlock on the riverbank. Adrenaline kept Noémi's feet firmly dug into the muddy ground, her knees locked in place with her body braced solidly against the creature's solid frame. _DORUmon_, Noémi remembered distractedly. This one was called DORUmon.

The digimon's gold eyes were wide and feral, pupils constricted to slits like a hunting cat's. Although Noémi had heard it talking, talking like a _human_, only moments ago, she saw no spark of thought or awareness now in its predatory stare. The creature seemed not to understand, or to care, about how easy it would be to simply release Noémi's arm, run around her or jump over to overcome the obstruction of her in its path. All DORUmon seemed to care about at present was winning the stalemate, trying to force her aside with brute strength. Its purple fur stood on end, all the way down its spine, and its lips drawn were back on its muzzle to expose pearly rows of blood-stained teeth.

Suddenly, it growled ferociously at her, the sound grinding out from between its clenched teeth. Startled, Noémi let out a scream and unthinkingly jerked back, realizing too late that this was a mistake: when she moved, DORUmon moved with her, its hind legs scrambling for purchase on the ground as it refused to release her arm for balance's sake. New pains stabbed her from the wounds its teeth had left, crimson blood splattering her skin and clothes.

She could hardly feel the pain for her fear, however. It had been easy to act brave when Luc was there with her—with his life hanging on her actions, hard decisions had come to her lightning-fast without the need for thought. But now, her brother was gone, and Noémi's certainty and courage had apparently gone with him.

"Let go! Let go of me!" she screamed at DORUmon, panic making her hysteric. Heedless of the damage to her bloody arm, Noémi tried desperately to yank herself free. "D-Damn you! Get off my arm, _right now_!"

Noémi screwed her eyes closed and swung her free arm down blindly with an angry scream, her body acting in terror of its own accord. With an audible _crack_, her fist collided hard with DORUmon's skull. Splitting pain lanced up Noémi's uninjured arm, but it was worth it a moment later, when DORUmon let out a grunt of surprise and opened its jaws. Freeing her.

With a shriek of relief Noémi fell back, barely managing to not fall on her rear end in the muddy grass. She scrambled to put as much distance between herself and the digimon as she could manage, knowing somehow that it would recover again in seconds.

She was right. Noémi had hardly run more than a few meters along the riverbank before a blur of motion soared noiselessly overhead. DORUmon landed directly before her, its movements startlingly graceful, alighting on its hind paws in the soaking grass. Noémi gasped and halted at once in her tracks.

Desperate, she glanced wildly from side to side, searching for a way out. The _Sèvre nantaise_ banked her solidly on her left, and the right was no better: she stood no chance of outrunning the digimon all the way up the grassy hill that led to the street. She was trapped.

"Don't—Don't kill me!" she heard herself shouting at DORUmon, as though the monster would actually listen. "Don't come any closer! I mean it!"

She took several steps away from the monster, glaring savagely to hide her fear. She held her arms in front of her like a shield, not caring that her wounds were still dripping blood.

To Noémi's surprise, instead of attacking, DORUmon eased the tension in its posture, rising up on its hind legs to observe Noémi solemnly. The feral, manic quality of its expression was suddenly gone. Its golden eyes seemed clear, less enraged, though still hard and merciless. Its gaze was sharpened on her with startling awareness, black pupils expanded to their ordinary size.

"_One like you would strike me?_" DORUmon asked Noémi suddenly, hardly discernible from a growl. "_One like you would give me commands?_"

The digimon's tone, like its stare, was aggressive but completely unreadable. Noémi's heart skipped a beat. She found herself frozen by its hard stare, unable to answer, but then without waiting for any response DORUmon turned its gaze to her injured arm.

"_Red blood_...the mark of the First World. The mark of a human," DORUmon said, its words slow and clear, staring at Noémi's arm with a look that was extremely serious. Finally its head snapped up again, regarding her with frighteningly sharp eyes. "_Speak_, organic one. Is this Earth? Are you a human being? You must be if you can talk."

At the word 'blood,' Noémi's eyes flickered automatically down to her bleeding arm—what she saw made her feel dizzy and sick, driving the digimon's question from her mind. Her arm was a mess of torn skin and glistening red blood, looking like it had been mangled in a piece heavy machinery. Belatedly, pain hit her hard as the adrenaline began to fade. She let out a sob and cradled her bleeding limb to her chest with her free hand.

"Oh, _Seigneur_," she sobbed, feeling suddenly very dizzy. "I didn't think it was that bad..."

Her ears roared with static, vision tipping violently in circles. From somewhere far away she heard a swishing sound, hardly more than a whisper in the grass—then, she screamed loudly, jumping about nearly three meters back in a single movement, upon turning to find that DORUmon was suddenly standing right at her side.

"Stay away from me!" she shrieked loudly, staggering backward so quickly she almost lost her balance. "S-Stay back! I'll fight you!"

The words sounded ridiculous even in her ears. Still, somehow her body managed to arrange itself into a defensive position, with her trembling hands in front: she wouldn't let this thing kill her without a fight.

To Noémi's surprise, the creature didn't rush in for an attack. Instead, DORUmon stepped away at once as she had asked, its head lowered slightly in...respect?

"You are bleeding," the digimon said to her plainly, nodding slightly toward her arm. "The wounds are not deep. I apologize for striking you, human. I was unaware of your true nature when I attacked."

Noémi swallowed, keeping her trembling body in the same defensive position. She refused to let her guard down, however little good it would do her if DORUmon attacked. "N-Nature?" she croaked.

"Organic. A life form based on carbon, rather than data," DORUmon told her by way of explanation, staring at Noémi with its unblinking gold eyes. "You are from the First World, the domain of humans. I did not realize I had come to Earth until I noticed your wounds."

Noémi nearly glanced down at her arm again, but she caught herself this time. Her mind was still reeling from the last glimpse of the injury and she _really_ didn't want a gruesome picture to match the pain she already felt.

"So—So you're really a—" she managed, trying to focus her thoughts somewhere else, "—a digimon. Like my brother said. F-From the card game?"

DORUmon regarded her with the same unreadable expression. "I know nothing of any card game," he said evenly. "I am one who comes from the Network, a place many among my kind know as the Digital World. I have lived there nearly as long as it has existed, longer than most of the digital life forms that came after. On the Network, my primary purpose, as with all digimon, is the deletion and absorption of others. My tertiary purpose is survival, and the pursuit of evolution."

"Wait—that first part, that means 'loading,' right?" Noémi asked anxiously, recalling with sickness the rocklike behemoth she had seen DORUmon destroy. "That's what the—uh, what Gomamon said! You _killed_ that thing before, and loaded its data!"

"I would not attempt such a measure on humans," DORUmon replied, apparently mistaking her upset tone for fear. "Humans like you have no data to collect. Destroying a human has no purpose to one like me."

"You can't just kill anyone you feel like!" Noémi screamed, causing DORUmon to go silent immediately. "So what if they don't bleed wherever you're from? You digimon are sentient like us, aren't you? That thing you killed could talk, it had _feelings_, it—it was hurt and scared, before you—"

She choked before she could finish, shaking with grief and anger. DORUmon stared at Noémi with bewildered golden eyes, looking uncertain how to proceed from her outburst.

"I apologize. Did the Golemon have some significance to you?" DORUmon asked, clearly uncertain of what it had done to upset her. "Before today, it and I existed only on the Network, where digimon like us are born. On the Network, deletion and loading is commonplace. I would not have deleted my opponent if I had encountered you before it happened, and understood that you did not wish for me to proceed."

"It mattered because it was alive!" she snapped, wiping her eyes furiously with the back of one hand. "You can't just...you can't do things like that for no reason! I don't care _how_ it is where you're from! That's awful!" A frightened thought struck her. "And you had better not go after Gomamon, or my brother, either!" she added, unable to keep the fear out of her voice. "Luc's a human, like me, and Gomamon—well, he's with _us_ now, so you can't load him like the other one!"

"Understood," DORUmon said, though it still clearly had no idea what it had done wrong. "As a matter of clarification, I had reason to load Golemon for its data. However, if you say that I am to not to delete digimon opponents for the time being, I will do as bid. You say not to go after Luc the human—he is yours? The one you call your brother? He took the Gomamon also before I had time to load it."

"Yes," Noémi said quickly. "Yes, Luc is his name. He's my brother. Don't...don't attack him or Gomamon. Don't try to load them. Please."

She hadn't meant to sound so desperate and pleading. However, DORUmon didn't seem to notice or care about her change in attitude.

"Understood." DORUmon answered at once, its low tone clear and decisive. "If you say Luc your brother and Gomamon are yours, I will attack neither, commander."

Noémi wasn't sure she believed the digimon, but she felt hopeful relief unfurl in her chest all the same. It eased the pain in her arm. "Okay," she breathed faintly, struggling to keep herself focused. "Um. That's. Good, yes. Thank you—DORUmon."

DORUmon seemed not to comprehend her gratitude, but slowly nodded anyway. "If you have no further directives for me, commander, I ask that we take measures to treat your injury."

The creature's odd wording suddenly struck her. Noémi wasn't sure she'd heard him right. "Wait. What did you call me?" she asked dumbly.

"Commander," DORUmon said simply. "Tamer. Human. Partner. I have heard many similar names. Would you prefer another?"

"I'm not your—no, no!" she said loudly, eyes widening in shock. "I'm not _anyone's_ commander, or tamer, or...or whatever it was you said! I only wanted you to leave my brother alone!"

"_You are my tamer_," DORUmon repeated plainly, not seeming to acknowledge her refusal in the slightest. "A digimon's purpose in the organic world is to find a human partner, to aid in the process of evolution. I have lived many years in the Digital World without evolving on my own, despite deleting and acquiring data from many digimon. You are the missing element."

"I'm not helping you with anything!" Noémi said, panicked. "You're a killer! A monster! I can't be your tamer! You're not even supposed to be _real!_" She took several unsteady steps back, heedless of the pain in her arm.

"You are my tamer," DORUmon said again, with infinite patience. "You have given me commands, and I have followed them. My passage to this world led me to you directly, and to Luc your human brother. He has taken Gomamon as his partner. Since I am not permitted to load Gomamon and inherit his partner, then you are mine."

"I am not!" she screamed. "You're not even supposed to be here—if anyone sees me with you—the police are going to think this is MY fault, if they see all the crazy things you can do!"

"You would have me unseen by other humans?" DORUmon asked. He seemed to have missed the point of her outburst.

"I don't want anyone to see you!" she screamed, clutching her bleeding so arm so tightly it burned. "_I_ shouldn't have seen you! This is insane; I can't be running around with a monster all over the place! Everyone's going to panic!"

"Understood," DORUmon said. Its golden eyes suddenly flickered to something past her head. "Then I leave you for now, commander."

"Pardon?" Noémi demanded, uncomprehending. However, a sudden shout from the street behind her interrupted the conversation.

"_Noémi!_ _Noémi, can you hear me? Noémi, are you—Noémi!_"

"_Mlle Simonet!_ _Is that you?_"

Noémi spun to face them, agape. She saw Luc and an unknown stranger running down toward her from the top of the street, their faces lighting up with relief to see her. Luc still held Gomamon in his arms.

"_Mon dieu_," the stranger said, a man, who hurried over to Noémi and gingerly lifted up her bleeding arm to inspect. "Oh, goodness, this looks terrible. Are you all right? I've called the hospital, child, somebody ought to be here any..."

Noémi tuned him out automatically, her eyes frozen on her brother. He still held Gomamon against his chest, the small creature resting limply and motionless in his arms like a toy. Luc met his sister's eyes, glanced down once at the digimon, then looked back up at her with a frantic shake of his head. Had he actually managed to keep the digimon a secret when he ran for help?

"Worst bite I've ever seen up close," the man was muttering to himself, inspecting her wound in aghast fascination without really touching it. "I've seen a few shows on television, where they talk about attacks like these, but seeing it is something else. Thank goodness you managed to get away. Did you see what kind of dog it was? Your brother was too frightened to remember, I think."

Wide-eyed, Noémi stared at Luc. He shrugged at her helplessly, clinging to Gomamon. Belatedly, Noémi turned to look over her shoulder at the spot where DORUmon had been standing in the grass just moments before. Aside from displaced mud and plants along the riverbank, there was no sign that it_—he—_had ever been there. DORUmon had vanished.

Noémi turned back to the man, swallowing back her bewilderment and uncertainty. She felt dizzy again. Now that she'd had a moment to think on it, the pain was _really_ starting to hurt.

"It was...it was a large dog that bit me, _monsieur,_" she managed finally, swaying unsteadily in place. "A very, very large dog."


End file.
